FEWKES] AECHEOLOGICAL OBJECTS 211 



vivals of the Indian implements liaving a similar form, while the 

 pestles still used have doubtless the same antiquity so fur as their 

 shape is concerned. Wooden mortars and pestles of the same form 

 are mentioned l)y Gvmiilla as still used h}' the Orinoco tribes, who. 

 employ them in grinding corn or other seeds. The}^ are widely dis- 

 tributed over the whole of tropical South America. 



Gold Ob.tects 



The aborigines of Porto Rico, unfortunately for them, were ac- 

 quainted with gold. They obtained it in the form of nuggets from 

 the sands of the rivers which rise in the high mountains and flow into 

 the Atlantic, especially at the eastern end of the island, where gold 

 dust is still obtained in small quantities b\' most primitive methods. 



This gold was washed out in wooden pans, and nuggets were beaten 

 into ornaments or cemented to the eyes, ears, and other parts of masks 

 or the heads of their idols. The caciques wore flat plates of gold on 

 their breasts, apparently as pendants, but not one of these escaped the 

 greed of the Spaniards. They were traded for hawk bells made of 

 base metal, which the Indians were glad to obtain in exchange. The 

 precious metal was regarded by the natives in a more or less sacred ' 

 light, and was never collected without preliminary fasts and purifi- 

 cations. 



Gold was used for a variety of purposes besides ear or nose pend- 

 ants. The cacique Guacanagari presented to Columbus a crown or 

 headband of gold. The metal was employed not only in the decora- 

 tion of masks, but also for adornment of other ceremonial ol)jects, 

 dance staves, and the like. The wooden seats cut in animal forms 

 were inlaid with gold. 



On the return from his second voyage Columbus held a formal 

 recej^tion at the Spanish court in which he decked out the Haitian 

 cacique, Maniatex, brother of Caonabo, with a crown of gold which 

 he had received from a cacique, and decorated his son with a chain of 

 the same metal. The rest of the Indians are said to have carried gold 

 masks, plates of the same material, and gold ornaments among which 

 were beads as "largeas nuts." Taking into account the general pov- 

 erty of the Antilleans, it is probable that there was a considerable 

 quantity of this metal in the possession of the natives at the time of 

 the discovery, but all of this was greedily collected by the Spaniards, 

 melted into bullion, and carried to Europe, so that in the various col- 

 lections of antiijuities there is not a single gold object of Indian manu- 

 facture from Porto Rico. 



The great desire of the Spaniards for gold led the Indians to regard 

 it as the god of the white man. A cacique named Hatuey, who lived 

 on the eastern end of Cuba, wishing to retain a strict union with the 



