182 THE ABORIGINES OF POKTO RICO [eth. ANN. 25 



other shapes; one is a fragment of a platter with a head attached like 

 a handle, and one represents an incised fragment. He writes: 



There is not an entire vessel in the collection, all of the specimens being frag- 

 ments of variously .shaped, coarse, red pottery, well baked, one or two pieces being 

 glossy on the surface. Nearly all of the ornamentation is produced by animal forms 

 luted on. The most of these are monkey heads adorned with scrolled, circular, and 

 fluted coronets, and by deeply incised lines, often forming very ingenious patterns. 

 Others bear human faces, all grotesque, and the figures of mythological animals. In 

 one of them a W-shaped wreath or festoon is luted on the outside. A fragment of 

 the bottom of a cup or jar deserves esjiecial mention on account of the ingenious 

 labyrinthine design traced on it by a deep furrowing produced evidently by a sharp 

 instrument when the vessel was soft. This bold, deep tracing is characteristic of all 

 the ornamentation on the pottery. 



While the author was preparing this report Dr Walter Hough, of 

 the National ^luseum, called his attention to a notebook that accom- 

 panied the Latimer collection containing several good pencil drawings 

 of three-pointed stones and collars in that collection. On one of the 

 pages of this book occurs this statement, written in an unknown hand: 



The following drawings are copies 

 made from those taken by me of 

 stone articles in the collection of 

 Caril) curiosities of George Latimer, 

 esq., of St John [San Juau] in the 

 island of Porto Rico. Some speci- 

 mens of Carib pottery in the same 

 collection are also represented. 

 These were all found in Porto Rico, 

 although I have collected similar 

 specimens in the island of St Croix, 

 some of which are in the possession 

 of the Lung Island Historical So- 

 ciety. .\ Ijattle-ax of stone, 15 

 inches long and 8 inches wide on the 



blade, found in St Croix, was presented by me to Mr Latimer, at whose request these 



sketches are now sent to the Smithsonian Institution. 

 Brooklyn, February 11, 1870. 



Another drawing in this notebook represents an effigy vase of such 

 unu.sual shape that a copy of it is reproduced in the accompanying 

 cut (figure 35). This vase apparentlj' never came to the Smithsonian 

 Institution with the Latimer collection, and is not mentioned by 

 Professor Mason in his catalogue. 



An examination of the other drawings in tiiis notebook and a com- 

 parison of them with the originals from which they were made show 

 that, while not accurate in all details, they are fairly good in the gen- 

 eral outlines. For instance, there are pictures, evidently' of the 

 three-pointed idols which Professor Mason illustrates (figures 40 and 

 4:2 in his book), showing the salient features of those specimens clearly 

 enough for identification. There is. therefore, every probability that 

 the drawing of the object labeled in this notebook an "earthenware 



Vase with lianrlle. from sketch, 

 lection.) 



