1!)6 THE ABORIGINES OF PORTO RICO 



Small idols or amulets, as has lieen already mentioned, are said to 

 have been tied to the foreheads of warriors when they went to battle, 

 but it is not impossible that some of the larger idols may have been 

 attached to the top of the head in much the same way that this bird 

 figure is represented on the head of a four-legged animal carved on the 

 end of the statf shown in plate lxxxix, J. //. 



In a of this plate is represented a carved stick purchased from 

 Senor Neumann and said to have l)een found in Porto Rico. This 

 object is not believed by the author to have been made by the prehis- 

 toric aborigines of Porto Rico, but the incised work on the crook and 

 upper part of the handle is thought to be Antillean. Tlie lines clearly 

 show the use of a steel knife or other metallic implement introduced 

 by Europeans, while the cutting of the ferules and grooves point the 

 same way. The object in question was pi'obably an Indian planting 

 stick or dibble, called hy the aborigines a coo, but not necessarily 

 made before the advent of the Spaniards. 



The wooden turtle show'n from the side and the back in plate xc, 

 a and «', collected ))y Mr F. A. Ober, is a fine specimen of the Antil- 

 lean wood carving. Mr Ober speaks of this object in his Aborigines 

 of the West Indies, as follows: 



In this connection I may be pardoned for alluding to my own "finds," in tliese 

 islands, some one hundred specimens having been sent by me to the Government 

 Mu.seum at different times. One of the most unique was a figure of a tortoise, carx'ed 

 from hard wood, which was fouml by me in a cave near St Vincent in 1878. 



When seen from the side, the head of this turtle appears to extend 

 considerabh' bej'ond the plastron and carapace and its throat and sides, 

 especially behind the eye sockets, are covered with a carved imitation 

 of scales, consisting of a series of incised lines crossing one another. 

 On the top of the carapace rise two prominences, which, as can be seen 

 in the back view, are pierced with perforations that extend through 

 the body. When we examine the back of this turtle (■'/), we not onl}' 

 find the two perforations above mentioned, but also discover that the 

 surface of the carapace is decorated with incised lines, ridges, and 

 ovate figures. The fore and hind limbs of the animal appear in this 

 view as prolongations from the sides of the body, extending a short 

 distance l)eyond the rim of the carapace. The animal's nostrils are 

 represented by shallow pits on the upper side of the pointed snout. 

 Whether this image was an idol or an amulet is not clearly deter- 

 mined, but the two ventro-dorsal perforations suggest that it was tied 

 to or suspended from some other object, possibly attached to some 

 part of the ImiBan head or body or worn as an amulet. Stone turtles 

 are known in one or two collections from the A\'est Indies, but they 



