j-EWKEs] ARCHEOLOGICAL OBJECTS 139 



In all large collections of prehistoric objects from the West Indies 

 there occur small images carved from stone, shell, and bone, perfo- 

 rated for suspension fi;om the person. Although man^' of these 

 fetishes or amulets are known, few have l)een descril^ed or figured, 

 and there is little recorded information as to their various forms. 

 The first-known figures of West Indian prehistoric amulets appear on 

 a map of Santo Domingo, dated 1731, published by Charlevoix." This 

 map bears under the iigures the legend "Figures superstitieuses de 

 Zemi ou Mabouya de la fayon anciens insulaires," showing that the 

 religious character of the objects was early i-ecognized. The sugges- 

 tion that zemis were tied to the forehead was first made b}- Professor 

 Mason. 



Among other figures of I)ominicau amulets are those of Antonio del 

 Monte y Tejada, published in his Historia de Santo Domingo, 1853. 

 Two of these represent frogs; four others are the same as those figured 

 in this article. 



In a German translation of the author's address on Prehistoric 

 Porto Rico, delivered before Section H of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, the editor of Ghihua has introduced 

 (no. 18 and 19, 1902) fine tigures of two amulets from Gonaives island, 

 near Haiti. 



The first tigures of Porto Rican amulets known to the present author 

 are those published in 1S77 by Mason.'' Three of the four figures 

 given hj him undoubtedly represent amulets, but the fourth, called a 

 ''lizard-shaped amulet" on account of a network of lines on the body, 

 supposed to indicate scales, shows no head, thus rendering exact 

 identification impossible. 



So far as known. Mason was also tlie first American writer to iden- 

 tify the perforated figures as anuilets, adding to his descriptions of 

 them the significant statement that "the inhabitants of Hispaniola, on 

 the authority of Friar Ramon Pane (Irving's Columbus, i, 390), 

 had small images of their gods which they bound about their fore- 

 heads when thej' went to battle." He points out also that the inhabit- 

 ants of the Lesser Antilles likewise used amulets, and thus refers to 

 one of these objects in the Guesde collection : "The principal auuilet 

 is of carbonate of lime in bladed crystallization. It represents a 

 mahouya (evil spirit) with bended arms and legs and the virile organ 



ti Histoire de I'Isle Espagnole ou de S. Domingue. Paris, 1730. In his preface Charlevoix states that 

 he obtained the manuscript of this work witli permission to publish it from the author, .lean Baptiste 

 le Pers. Mr H. Ling Roth saj's that, according to Margry, Le Pers repudiated Charlevoix's publica- 

 tion. The second volume of Charlevoix's work is dated 1731, the year borne by the map in the first 

 volume. Three figures of zcmis are given on this map, one of ivhich belongs to the first type, those of 

 human form. It is more difficult to identify the others, especially the one said to have been found 

 in an Indian burial mound. Its general form resembles that of a three-pointed idol, but as no profile 

 of the conical projection characteristic of this form is given the identification is doubtful. 



'"Latimer collection of antiquities from Porto Rico, in the National Museum at Washington, I). ('. 

 Smitlisoniaii Eepori for 1876. 



