148 THE ABORIGINES OF PORTO RICO (etii. ANN. 25 



tho.se found in the northern i.slunds. Trinidad, which is so near the 

 continent of .South America that we may regard tiieir aborigine.s a.s 

 practically the same in culture, has several amulets of types different 

 from any found in Porto Rico. Plate Lviii, n, represents one of these 

 from side and top. The side view shows a figurine of an animal with 

 peccary- or armadillo-like head, four legs, and a short, thick tail. The 

 legs are outlined b^- incised spirals on the body and have their extremi- 

 ties connected by a Hat band having- an opening between it and the 

 body of the animal. The holes by which this fetish was suspended 

 are just in front of the legs, one on each .side, as in other amulets. 



When seen from above, it will be noted that the figure is slightly 

 curved and that two deep grooves extend along the back, inclosing a 

 triangular area reaching from the neck backward as far as the con- 

 striction which separates the tail from the body. There are likewise 

 incised parallel lines on the upper part of the tail and curved lines on 

 the top of the head. 



PiCTOGRAPHS 



Not the least significant of the many survivals of a prehistoric race 

 in the West Indies are rude pictures cut in rocks and called '"picto- 

 graphs " or ' • petroglyphs." " A study of their forms, geographical dis- 

 tribution, and meaning is an important aid to our knowledge of the 

 origin and development of Antillean culture; it affords valuable data 

 bearing on the migration of the race and points the way back to its 

 ancestral continental home. Although there exists consideralde lit- 

 erature on the pictography of the Lesser Antilles, the Bahamas, 

 Jamaica,* and Porto Rico, little has yet been published on that of Cuba 

 and Santo Domingo. The last-named islands were thickly settled at 

 the time of their discover}', and we should expect to find in them many 

 pictographic evidences of prehistoric occupancy.' Continued research 

 will undoubtedly make them known to anthropologists. 



The most important contribution to the pictograijhy of Porto Rico 

 is by A. L. Pinart,'' whose pamphlet, although rai-e, is acce.ssible in 



njliillery (1893) restricts the term "petroglyph" to productions "where the picture "is upon a rock 

 either in situ or sutiiciently large for inference that the picture was impo.sed upon it where it was 

 found." Following this restriction the majority of pictures here considered would be called " petro- 

 glyphs;" but as this article contains other forms, the author retains the older term "pictograph" 

 for both kinds. See Prehistoric Porto Rican Pictographs. American Aiithropoh(jist. v, no. 3. July-Sep- 

 tember, 1902. 



''J. K. Duerden, Aboriginal Indian Remains in Jamaica. Journal of the Institute of Jamaica, ii, 

 no. 4, July, 1897. 



c While in the Dominican Republic the author heard of several pictographs, among others a cluster 

 on the shore of Lake Henriquillo, but he did not inspect them. According to H. Ling Roth (The 

 Aborigines of Hispaniola, Journal of the Anthropolorjiral Institute of (Irrat Britain, xvi, 264, 1886), 

 "Descourtilz also (Voyage d'\ni Naturaliste, ii, 18-19, Paris, 1808) says rock carvings of grotesque fig- 

 ures are to be found in the caves of Dubeda, Gouaives, in those of Mont Selle, near Port au Prince, 

 and in the tiuartierdu Dondon, near Cape Francois (Capo Haitien)." 



rf Note .sur les PC'troglyphs et Antiquities des Grandes et Petites Antilles, Paris, 1890 (folio facsimile 

 of MS.). 



