178 THE ABORIGINES OF PORTO EICO [etii. ann. 25 



Professor Mason gives short references to nine pillar stones, the 

 most interesting of which he describes as follows: 



17129. A rude slab of yellow stone, 28.5 by 13 to 10 by 6 inches. On the flat face 

 is a human figure very roughly furrowed out, bearing on its stomach an inverted 

 face. On the top of this slab a circle is furrowed out. The carving on this and the 

 foregoing slabs was apparently done by pecking out the depressions with stone chis- 

 els, leaving the eyebrows, nose, and lips in intaglio. 



Several suppo.sed pillar stones bearing pictographic figures occur in 

 the author's collection. These may not have been true pillar stones, 

 but their likeness to such stones is so close that they belong to this 

 type. One of these bears as a design a human face and part of a 

 body. Although very indistinct, the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears 

 of this oliject are evident on close inspection. This specimen was 

 purchased from Senor Augelis of Cataiio in 1903. Its small size 

 indicates that it was not one of the boundary stones of a dance court. 



Large Stone Idols 



It is probable that in addition to pillar stones and slabs bearing pic- 

 tographs some of the stones of Porto Rican dance inclosures were 

 idols of massive proportions, occcupying a prominent place within the 

 inclosure, possibly on a raised platform. 



The author has heard of several of these idols, but while unable to 

 .procure a single .specimen, although he believes such might be found 

 by systematic excavation of the accumulated debris on the floors of 

 the dance inclosures, several reliable persons have informed him 

 that such an idol formerly stood in a dance inclosure near Utuado. 

 This idol is said to have the head and breast of a female, and Mr Eoig, 

 owner of the farm where the dance inclosure is situated, stated to the 

 author that it stood on a raised platform on one side. 



It was carried to Arecibo several years ago and mounted on a ped- 

 estal in front of the buildings of the hacienda Mercedes, but during the 

 Ciriaco cyclone of 1898 the buildings were wrecked and the idol was 

 overthrown and covered with wreckage. Regarding its subsequent 

 fate there is want of uniformity in statements, some saying that it is 

 still in private hands, others that it lies buried in the debris. The 

 author was not successful in his search for this relic or for a photo- 

 graph of it which is reported to be in existence. 



There are other large idols, more or less rudely made, still in situ 

 at different dance inclosures, but these differ but little from the pillar 

 stones above described. 



The antiquities of (Juba and Porto Rico are so dissimilar that the cul- 

 ture of the aborigines must have varied considerably, and relics from 

 different parts of Cuba show a marked variation in prehistoric Cuban 

 culture." It appears that the prehistoric natives of .some regions of the 

 greatest of the Antilles were more backward than those of Haiti and 



o Prehistoric Culture of Cuba. American Anthrupoluyist, n. s., vi, 6S5, Oct.-Dec, 1905. 



