74 



ISLAND CtJLTURE AREA OF AMERICA 



[ETH. ANN. 3t 



men is well below the snout, which tapers above uniformiy to its end. 

 There is no doubt tliat the protuberances above the mouth were in- 

 tended to represent eyes, while those near the rim of the vessel may 

 have been designed for fins or other organs. Xo representations 

 of nostrils or ears are apparent in plate 8, C, but the broad flat head 

 has two eyes and a well-developed moutli. The break at tiie point of 

 attachment shows that it was a handle of a vessel. There remains 

 a considerable number of other pottery heads obtained at the Erin 

 Bay miilden, some of which are too greatly mutilated for identi- 

 fication. 



Plate S, D, illustrates a clay stamp, one of a class of objects not 

 unconmion in the Lesser Antilles. The face of this specimen is 

 circular, with an incised design, and was probably used either for 



decorating cloth or for stam2:)ing figures 

 on the face or body in a manner similar 

 to the clay cylinders elsewhere de- 

 scribed."" These stamps are often elab- 

 orate. Some of those lately obtained by 

 Mr. De Booy from Santo Domingo bear 

 images on their handles and rattle when 

 shaken. 



Stone Implements 



Stone implements from the Erin Bay 

 midden consist of celts, axes, chisels, 

 pecking stones, mortars, pestles, and 

 other forms. A number of almond- 

 shaf)ed celts, like Porto Eican petal- 

 oids, were collected in Trinidad. The most interesting ax is flat, with 

 notches cut at op230site edges, as shown in figure 1. 



There is general similarity in the forms of the mortars found in 

 the AA'est Indies, but the pestles vary in different islands. In the 

 Santo Domingo-Porto Rico area pestles commonly have handles 

 decorated with animal heads or even with entire animals, but in the 

 St. Kitts region they are simple unornamented cones, pointed at one 

 end, circular or oval at the opposite end, liut with no differentiation 

 of base, handle, or head. The Guadeloupe and St. Vincent pestles 

 are of the same general character as those from St. Kitts. which are 

 identical with those found in Trinidad. 



There are several stones in the collecticm from the Erin shell heap 

 that were evidently used for pecking other stones or for pounding 



''Aborigines of Porto Kico, Twenly-flftli Ann. Ript. Bur. Amer. Etliu., pi. Ixxxvi, a. 



Fig. 1. — Notched ax. Trinidad. 



