116 ISLAND CULTTJRE AREA OF AMEKK'A [eth. ANN. 3t 



ologists in studies of these foi-ms to which the author is able to add so 

 little definite information. 



The following mention of these objects by Mr. George H. Pepper 

 is published in an account of " The Museum of the American Indian, 

 Hej'e Foundation." *"* 



" Of still greater interest," he writes, " to the student is a series of 

 both well-known and fantastic objects made from a metamorphosed 

 volcanic scoria. There are several hundred specimens, all of which 

 were found in a restricted area near Fancy at the liase of the volcano 

 of La Soufriere. Nothing like them has been found in the adjacent 

 islands, and it is quite probable that they were made and deposited 

 at this place as votive offerings in way of propitiation to the god of 

 the volcano." 



Regarding their age the Rev. Thomas Huckerby, from whom Mr. 

 Heye purchased these objects, writes as follows: "I think that the 

 specimens indicate a very old civilization. Probably they take us 

 back beyond the Carib occupation. As suggested in a previous letter, 

 it is probable that these specimens and the people who used them 

 were covered up by the ejecta of a prehistoric eruption of the 

 Soufriere. * * * " 



The author is unable from the scanty evidence available to deter- 

 mine either the age or genuineness of these objects; but he would 

 judge from a personal examination of the site where they are said to 

 have l)een found that they date back to pre-Carib times. No object 

 was found on the site that resembles them, so we are obliged to rely on 

 the testimony of the collectors for their authenticity. 



These objects show artificial working and appear to belong to a 

 type. Their variety of form may be best illustrated by considei-ing 

 in turn several of the most common representatives. Their three- 

 sided form is prominent in plate 37, ^4, somewhat resembling in out- 

 line the three-pointed stone idols of the fourth type partially finished, 

 their points being rounded and without superficial decorations or 

 carved heads. 



In plate 37, 5, we have a similar stone, possessing three rounded 

 points, two of which are extended in such a way as to resemble 

 wings, arising from a spherical middle region that may be desig- 

 nated the body. 



This modification of two points into forms of wings has gone 

 still further in plate 37, C\ where the body has taken on an angular 

 or rectangular form. 



The specimen shown in plate 37, Z-*, resembles an imjdement with a 

 groove for hafting and a pointed extremity: the other jiole being 

 lens-shaped. It resembles in profile the other specimens, but its use 

 is unknown. 



™ Geographical Riview, vol. ii, no. 6, p. 411, 1916. 



