FEWKES] CULTURE AEEAS IN THE WEST INDIES 65 



and indeed there is no good evidence that there were Caribs on the 

 island, notwithstanding several of the above-mentioned tribes are 

 supposed by some authors to be divisions of " Carib." 



The nearest approach to pure-blood aborigines of Trinidad live 

 at Arima, in the middle of the island; but aboriginal features can 

 still be found elsewhere among the inhabitants, although the author 

 was unable to learn of a person who could speak any aboriginal 

 language once spolcen on the island, or that there were any Indians 

 of pure blood remaining. There survive in Trinidad numerous 

 Indian place names, as Arima and Naparima; but while some of 

 these suggest names existing in Porto Rico and St. Vincent, they 

 are as a rule dissimilar, indicating different languages. The pre- 

 historic inhabitants of Trinidad were probably linguistically distinct 

 from those of the other islands. 



Additional knowledge of the culture of the aborigines of Trinidad 

 can be acquired either by archeological research or through survivals 

 in folklore, which are very common. 



Erin Bat 



The small settlement at Erin Bay consists of a few shops, two 

 •churches, and a number of dwellings along a well-built road that 

 passes through the town to a warehouse on the shore. Small steam- 

 ers anchor at intervals a few miles from the coast, but the best 

 way to reach the settlement is by steamer from San Fernando to 

 Cap de Ville and by carriage from the landing. It can also be visited 

 from San Fernando by I'oad, via Siparia. The only accommodations 

 for remaining overnight at Erin are at the Government House. 



The present population consists almost wholly of blacks and East 

 Indian coolies indentured to English planters or overseers, who own 

 or manage the larger estates. The vernacular is a French patois of 

 peculiar construction and incomprehensible to any but the inhabi- 

 tants. The plantations are large and considerably scattered; they 

 produce profitable crops, mainly cocoa and tropical fruits that are 

 shipped to Port of Spain for exjwrt. 



Not far from Erin there are remnants of the primeval forests in 

 which game, monkeys, and tropical vegetation abound. The land 

 is rich and productive, and the estates are prosperous. There are 

 a few small kitchen middens on the coast, not far from Erin, some 

 of which will well repay excavation; but their isolation is a prac- 

 tical difficulty unless complete and systematic work be done.^" 



" Trinidad has never been regarded as a remunerative field for archeological investi- 

 gation. The first results of the author's efforts in the island were not very promising, 

 but after some discouragement, excavations of a shell heap at Erin Bay, in the Cedros 

 district, yielded important data bearing on the former culture of the aborigines in this 

 part of the island. 



160C58'— 34 ETH— 22 5 



