FEWKE.s] ARCHEOLOGICAL OBJECTS 159 



True Carib pictograph.s from 8t Vincent are rigured on \>\ate lxii. 

 The resemblances to pictograplis from Porto Rico are ver}' great, 

 especially in the case of those shown in />. 



Stone (^'ollars 



No archeological olijects found in Porto Rico liave attracted more 

 attention and are more characteristic of the island" than those rings 

 made of stone that from their shapes are called collars or horse collars. 

 Although several have been found in Santo Domingo and in the Lesser 

 Antilles, the number collected in Porto Rico far exceeds that from all 

 the other West Indies. There are in the United States some sixty of 

 these objects, about evenly distributed between the collections in 

 Washington and New York. Several are in European museums, in 

 the Blackmore and Christy collections in England, and in the pul)lic 

 museums of Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, and other cities. 

 It has been estimated that there are about one hundred Porto Rican 

 collars the ownership of which is known. 



While these objects, as a rule, have the collar shape several arc sim- 

 pl3' stone rings, roughly formed, as if untinished specimens, and others 

 are simply stones with a round oi' oval perforation. Their size is far 

 from uniform, but their shape is almost without exception oval. The 

 kinds of rock of which they are are made ditfer, as does the technic 

 of the specimens. Some of the collars show undoubted signs of peck- 

 ing, but as a rule the surface of the completed form shows that tiiey 

 were polished b}' rubbing. They rank among the finest specimens of 

 stoneworking by the Indians of America. 



Professor Mason classities these stone rings in two groups, (1) the 

 massive and ("i) the slender oblique oval.'' Those of the latter group are 

 as a rule the better made, being sometimes highly ornamented, with 

 ornamentation limited to the pointed pole. The massive collars bear 

 superficial decorations that are unlike the designs on the slender oblique 

 oval. The following observations on the classification of stone collars 

 were published in the author's article on Porto Rican Stone Collars 

 and Tripointed Idols: 



Professor Ma-soii distinguishes two classes of stone collars, which he calls "the 

 massive oval and the slender oblique ovate or pear shaped." "The latter," he 

 says, "are far more highly polished and ornamented than the former, and some of 

 the ornamental patterns on the massive forms are reproduced but more elaborated on 

 the slender variety, notaV)ly the gourd-shaped ridge surrounding the panels. 



Collars of both classes are subdivided by the same author into two groups, (a) the 

 right-shouldered and (fc) the left-shouldered collars, which may be distinguished as 



"See D. G. Brinton, On a Petroglyph from the Islantl of St Vincent. Proceedings of the Academij of 

 Natural Scknce, Philadelphia, 1889. The specimens said to have been found in Scotland by Daniel 

 Wilson, as was pointed out by Stevens, are probably West Indian. 



6The Latimer Collection of Antiquities from Porto Eico in the National Museum, and the Guesde 

 Collection of Antiquities in Pointc-a-Pitre. Guadeloupe, West Indies; reprint, p. 385, 1899. These arti- 

 cles originally appeared in the Smithsonian RcportfSoT 1676 and ISSi, respectively All references to 

 Professor Mason are to this reprint. 



