110 THE ABORIGINES OF PORTO RICO [kth. ANN. 2.-i 



relief on one face. These illustrations were made from sketches given 

 to the author by Mr W. F. Willoughbv, treasurer of Forto Rico. 



Stunk Halls 



Among the many objects found near the so-called jiicgos de hola, or 

 ball courts, of Porto Rico may be mentioned certain spherical stones 

 which constantly occur in collections from this island. These stone 

 balls vary from the size of a marble to two feet in diameter. Many 

 of them were undoubtedly naturally formed by running water, and 

 evidently gathered from the beds of rivers and carried to the village 

 sites for a purpose; others show good evidences of having been made 

 spherical by human hands. 



In the course of his tra\('ls in Porto Rico the author collected sev- 

 eral stone balls, as they are popularly called, ascribed to the aborigines 

 of the island. It is conmionly supposed that these balls were used in 

 a game called batey^ but as they are made of stone, while Oviedo 

 speaks of the haU'i/ balls as made of a kind of gum, this interpretation 

 evidently does not apply. These lialls, varying from the size of a 

 marble to several inches in diamet(n'. are, as a rule, moderately smooth, 

 even when made of the hardest rock. While it is not impossible that 

 they were used in games, some of (iiem were intended for other and 

 far ditferent purposes. 



That these objects were used by the Indians in ball games sucli as 

 Oviedo describes can not be believed, because that author says that 

 elastic balls of vegetable sul)stances, capable of rebounding, were 

 employed in the ball games; but these stones ma}' have been used in 

 ball games of other Itinds, of which we have no record. These objects 

 arc almost universally associated In* the country- people with the j uegoit 

 ill- hola. and regarded as of aboriginal manufacture. 



Two other theories of their use are suggested: They may have been 

 put on the ridge poles of cabins, as ligured by Oviedo, to weight down 

 the roofs, or they may have been employed as fetishes in ceremonials 

 for rain, following a well-known custom among primitive people. As 

 llicse stones are found in or near water and nowhere else, by aeon- 

 fusion of effect and cause it was believed that they must have brought 

 the water. As water-worn stones are regarded bj' other peoples as 

 eliicacious in pi'oducing water, so it may have been that the aboriginal 

 Porto Ricans in their primitive reasoning sought out and prized these 

 spherical stones for use in rain ceremonials for crops. There is no 

 stivtenient to this eft'ect in early writings, and the theory here sug- 

 gested is simply inferred from practices common among other jjrimi- 

 ti\e, peoples. 



The specimens designated c, /", y, on plate xxxi, are spherical or 

 ovate stones collected at different points on the island. Many more 

 were seen l)ut thev are all similar to those here figured. 



