146" THE ABORIGINES OF POKTO RICO fETti. axn. 25 



account of which would increase our knowledge of the variety of amu- 

 let forms from the West Indies. Among- these n\sij l)e mentioned two 

 frog-shaped amulets of black stone in the excellent Nazario collection 

 at (iuayanilla, near Ponce, P. R. 



While it is possible that some of the amulets above described may 

 not have been bound to the foreheads of the natives, it is at least 

 prol)able, as indicated by the perforations, that they were attached to 

 or suspended from some part of the head or bod}-. It is known that 

 caci<|ues wore on their breasts gold ornaments called (/nan In, since the 

 custom is mentioned in an account of a battle with the Indians, when 

 Ponce shot a cacique (supposed to have been Aguebana the Second) 

 thus adorned. As none of these gold objects escaped the rapacity of 

 the eaidv conquerors, and as no detailed description of them is known, 

 it is impossible to say whether they were amulets as well as insignia 

 of rank. 



There is a striking similarity lietween some of tlie ^^'est Indian amu- 

 lets and those found in Mexico. As a rule those from the Antilles are 

 not so characteristic in shape and are not so well made as those from 

 Central America. We should expect to tind a wider distribution of 

 these small objects than of the larger idols from the fact that they are 

 more easily transported; but this distribution is not necessarily indic- 

 ative of racial kinship of the owners of these objects. The similarity 

 between Antillean and South American amulets is marked, btit I tind 

 no resemblance between those from Porto Rico and those from the 

 mainland north of Mexico. 



The objects described in the preceding pages are supposed to be 

 identical with the small idols called zt'//ii'''< by earh' writers, who declare 

 that the natives bound them to their foreheads when they went to war. 

 A reference to Ramon Pane's statement that the islanders wore zemis 

 in this manner has already been made (page 42). Peter Martyr'' 

 describes certain idols used by the people of Hispaniola in their wor- 

 ship, which were undoubtedly amulets. He says: "These images the 

 inhabitantes call i^wz/.v. whereof the leaste, made to the likenesse of 

 young devilles, they bind to their foreheads when the}' goe to the warres 

 against their enemies." Francisco Lopez de Gomara,* in describing 

 the customs of the Indians of Hispaniola, says: "Atanse a la frente 

 idolos chiquitos quando cpiieren pelear.'' ("They bind little idols to 

 their foreheads when they wish to light.'") Similar statements made 

 l)y other writers in the earlier half of the sixteenth {-entury are fre- 

 (juently (juoted in luore modern works. 



The difference in the forms of these amulets might be supposed 

 to have been due to the desire to indicate b}' them the clans of the 

 wearers were it not for the fact that the images are so small and con- 

 sequently inconspicuous that they would have been useless for such a 



a Decade I, lib. i.\, p. fju-ol. !■ Historia <le las Indias, p. 24, Antwerp, lohi. 



