198 THE ABORIGINES <)F PORTO RICO 



features there is a remarkable uniformity in these idols, which natu- 

 rally supports the inference that those of Porto Rico could not have 

 differed very iii-eatly from ol)ii>cts of this kind in the other West 

 Indian islands. 



These idols are, as a rule, made from single pieces of wood, as tiie 

 legends state, either a log, root, or branch, in no instance of two parts 

 united. Although many of thcMii are now partially eaten awa^' 

 ))y white ants or otliei- insects, rendering their surfaces rough, the 

 indications are that they were once sraootli and covered with a super- 

 ficial varnish or paint. The majority are made of very hard wood, 

 but one or two are of soft \vood. such as is easily worked with stone 

 implements. 



These wooden images are generally found in caves or other places 

 where they were best protected from destruction and where ancient 

 rites and ceremonies were probably held. (Jonsidering the time that 

 has elapsed since they were in use, it is remarkable that many of them 

 are so well preserved. It is not certain tiiat all <>f the smaller wooden 

 idols are Antillean. 



Idols were brought to America from Africa when negro slaves were 

 imported to replace the Indians who had succumbed to the cruel treat- 

 ment of the .Spaniards. The author has a photograph of one that 

 closely resembles the wooden idols from Easter island. Similar images 

 were known to have been carried to the guano lieds on the Peruvian 

 coast by enslaved Easter islanders, and one of these idols may have 

 come by the same means to the West Indies. 



The author has not seen the three wooden idols (jilate lxxxvtii, 

 part 1. gji) from .lamaica that will first be considered, but finds the 

 original figures and descriptions of them l)v Doctor Duerden" so 

 instructive that he (juotes theretrom at length, as follows: 



In the last number of the Journal [of the Institute of Jamaica, 1SH6] is a facsimile 

 reproduced on the previous pajjre. of an engraving in .\rchieologia (1803) of three 

 Jamaica wooden images in the British Museum. With regard to these the editor 

 supplies the accompanying details: "In 1799 they were exhiliited at tlie Society of 

 Antiquities, London, and the following account api>ears of them in the appendix to 

 "Archa?ologia," voK 14, 1803, p. 2t)9, April 11, 1791i. 



Isaac Alves Rebello, esq., F. A. S., exhibited in the suriety three figures, supposed 

 to be of Indian deities in wood, found in June, IT'.il', in a natural cave near the sum- 

 mit of a luoimtain, called "Spots," in Carpenters .MciUntam, in theiwrishot Veve '' in 

 the islan<l of Jamaica, by a surveyor in measuring the land. They were discovered 

 placed with their faces (one of which was that of a hird ) towanl the east. 



In comincntiiig on the figurines. Doctor Diicrden calls attention to 

 the presence of constrictions on legs and arms and quotes Doctor 

 Chanca's letter refei-ring to a habit of the natives of the island of 



n Aboriginal Indian Remains in Jamaiia, Journal uj Ihr Insliliile nj Jamuicn. vol. l, no. 4. .Inly, 1897; 

 Jamai<'a Wooden Images in the British Museum, ihid.. no. 3. Is'JC. 

 !> Carpenters monntain is now included in the county of Manchester, created in 1S70. 



