FEWKES] ARCHEOLOGTCAL OBJECTS 13B 



which have led to them being considered with such stones. The two 

 specimens on this plate, like several of the three-pointed stones, show 

 evidences that they were once attached to some foreign object. 



Specimen / is half disk-shaped, with two ear-like lappets, one on 

 each side. As figured in ./'', one side of this object is more flattened 

 than the other. Eyes and mouth are obscurely indicated. 



A second specimen (r/) has a similar form but is destitute of eye and 

 mouth markings and of the flattened surfac(>. 



Stoxe Heads 



We pass now to the consideration of another group of stone objects 

 peculiar to the West Indies, the use of which is unknown. These are 

 called masks bj' Professor Mason and in some instances this designa- 

 tion is the most convenient j'et proposed. "It requires," writes 

 Mason, "a slight stretch of imagination to call the objects included in 

 this class masks. The only ground upon which we do so is their 

 resemblance to manj' of the false faces or masks worn in pantomimes. 

 These, of course, never could have had any such use. Three of them 

 are somewhat similar to the objects just described (three-pointed 

 stones). The bottoms are hollowed out, there are furrowed depres- 

 sions at the base of the prominence, and the manmiiform elevation is 

 grotescjuely observed, being replaced by a face, the Aztec nose forming 

 the apex of the stone. The Typhoean figure is sometimes present." 

 An examination of the series of these objects in the Latimer collection, 

 and of the several others which he has brought from Porto Rico, has 

 convinced the author that the majority of these objects were never 

 used as face masks in rites or ceremonies. Some of them show evi- 

 dences of having been lashed to other bodies and several fit the palm 

 of the hand, while others are perforated as if for suspension. Evi- 

 dently two radically different types of stone objects, neither of 

 which were worn over the face, have been embraced in the designation 

 "masks" as the word is used by Professor Mason. In this mono- 

 graph the author differentiates these two, and considers them under 

 tiie separate titles of "Stone heads" and "Disks with human faces." 

 The former are connected in form with the three-pointed stones of the 

 third type; the latter have no such relation. 



The stone heads have as a rule an oval form, with a human face cut 

 on one side, while that opposite the face, or the base, is flat or slightly 

 concave. There are two types of these stone heads, (1) those with a 

 basal region tlat on one side with a head standing out in relief on the 

 other, and (2) those in which there is no ditterentiation of head and 

 basal region, the back of the head being simply flattened. Naturally 

 the two types grade into each other. Disks with faces on one side are 

 flattened forms of the latter type. The basal region sometimes is of 



