174 



THE ABORIGINES OF PORTO RICO 



im'ii one arm is perforated, :i.s in the elbow .stone bearing a t'aee wliieli 

 Mason describes and tigures. The perforation and beading- may indi- 

 cate places for attachment of string's l)v which the object was suspended, 

 or lashed to some other object. 



One of the best of these elbow stones has a complete tigure of a 

 human being- cut in relief on the panel corresponding- to that bearing- 

 the face in the Mason and Pinart specimens. This object has no 

 resemblance to a broken collar, although it belongs to the same t\pe 

 as that above mentioned. As in Pinart's specimen, the extremities 

 of the arms or extensions are beaded, a feature not found in the 

 Mason elbow stone, on which a face is represented. The elbow stone, 

 which has a complete human tigure carved in relief on its panel, is 

 tigured in Neumann's work above referred to, copied from a figure 

 in the Spanish periodical La IJiistrmid/i Espanoln ij AiiirriCitint. 

 These elbow stones are regarded as a distinct type, having a morpho- 

 logical likeness to the pointed pole, and to the boss and neighboring 

 parts of an oblique oval collar. Their use and meaning are enig- 

 matical. 



To this type of elbow stone belongs also the highly aberrant speci- 

 men represented in tigure 195, in Professor Mason's catalogue of the 

 Guesde collection. Mason thus refers to this object: 



An ornamental piece of Ijliiish green color. It is rare in form, but not absolutely 

 unique. In the American Museum at Xew York is a similar specimen. The cham- 

 fering and fiuting are gracefully blended. The left hand extremity is perforated for 

 suspension. From Punto Duo. Length of long limb, 8 inches: of short limb, h^^ 

 inches. 



These elbow stones sometimes take the form of Ixiomerangs and are 

 without ornamentation, although one arm is generally Huted or beaded. 

 In such specimens all resemblance to a broken collar is lost, leaving 

 little d(iui)t that the tj'pe is distinct from that of the collar, notwith- 

 standing the resemblance of some of the more 

 highly decorated ones to those characteristic ob- 

 jects. One of the.se stone elbows was found to 

 exhibit at the shorter end evidences that it had 

 l)een put to a secondary use — that of a hammer — 

 foi- which its form is admirably adapted. 



KN(,)BiiKD Hkai>s 



Several heads made of stone were seen in Santo 

 Domingo that dilier so widely from the mask form 

 that they are considered another type, although 

 related to it. One of these (figure 'i.s) in the Im- 

 bert collection is among the finest specimens of 

 stone polishing- received from the island. Another has a head in relief 

 on one side of a rough stone. 



Perhaps the most problematical of these st(5n(> lieails is one (figures 



(Iml)iTtcollf.-tin 



