:ewkes] ARCHEOLOGICAL OBJECTS 147 



purpose: but it is quite probable that the custom of painting the seuu^ 

 or totem, on the body was practised with this intention/' 



It is much more probable that the frontal amulets were regarded as 

 efficacious against occult evil influences, the owner relying for protec- 

 tion on their magic power, in the possession of which they resemble all 

 amulets. Their attachment to the forehead naturallj^ suggests the 

 phylacteries of the Jews. 



It is probable that, in addition to the amulets which the C'aril) and 

 the other Antilleans bound on their forelieads when they went to war, 

 these people had numerous amulets, some of which were worn on the 

 neck or on other parts of the body or limbs. Those here considered . 

 have the form of small idols and were designed for pendants, but the 

 aborigines had other objects also which were not suspended from the 

 body, although likewise used as protective charms.* 



Ramon Pane has given a full account of the usages of the medicine 

 men, or hoii, of the islanders, which is interesting in this connection. 

 From his description, which accords in general with primitive medici- 

 nal practices among other tribes, that portion bearing directl}' on the 

 way in which a stone object, later used as a fetish, was presumably 

 taken from the patient is here given:'' 



The boii, huhuitiha, having purged himself and taken liis own drug [a custom not 

 recommended to tiie modern physician] rises and goes to thesick man, . . . takes 

 him by the legs, feels his thighs, descending by degrees to his feet, then draws hard as 

 if he would pull something off; then he goes to thedoor, shuts it, and says: "Begone 

 to the mountain or to the sea or whither thou wilt," and, giving a blast as if he 

 blowed something away, turns about, clasjis his hands together, shuts his mouth, his 

 hands quaking as if he were a-cold, he blo,ws on his hands, and then draws in liis 

 blast as if sucking the marrow of a bone, sucks the man's neck, stomach, shoulders, 

 jaws, breast, I)elly, and several other parts of his body. . This done, they begin to 

 cough and make faces, as if they had eaten some bitter thing, and the doctor pulls 

 out what we have said he put into tiis mouth at home or by the way, whether stone, 

 fiesh, or bone, as above. If it is anything eatable he says to the sick man, " Take 

 notice you have eaten something that has caused this distemper; see how I have 

 taken it out of your body. For your Cemis had put it into you because you did not 

 pray to him or build him some temple or give him some of your goods." If it be a 

 stone, he says, "Keep it safe." Sometimes they take it for certain that these stones 

 are good and help women in labour, wherefore they keep them very carefully 

 wrapped up in cotton, putting them into little baskets, giving them such as they 

 themselves eat, and the same they do to the Cemix they liave in their houses.'' 



The forms of these amulets vary somewhat in different islands; those 

 from the southern members of the Lesser Antilles differ especial!}' from 



"The author was told that the country people at Boya, the old pueblo in Santo Dom'ngo where 

 the Indians under Henriquillo were settled, "sometimes paint designs on their faces in red as the 

 Indians used to do." 



t>lm Thurn speaks of the natives of Guiana carrying worn stones to which they ascribe occult 

 powers. There are innumerable other instances of this general custom among various races which 

 may tje explained on the theory of a belief in their eihcacy against evil influences or practices. 



'This translation is taken from Churchill's Voyages, p. 572. See also H. Ling "Roih,' Journal o/the 

 AiUhmpoluiiiral Iiistiliite of Greut Brilciin, XVI, 2.')4-25.i. 1886. 



d Feeding fetishes and other images is a common practice among primitive idolators, and almost 

 every special student might give instances of the usage among tribes which he has .studied. The 

 Hopi, for instance, put food into the mouths of their stone idols. 



