118 ISLAND CULTURE AREA OF AMERICA [eth. ann. 34 



It is hardly necessary to consider individually each of the many 

 forms of these strange objects of the Heye collection, and almost im- 

 possible to make a satisfactory classification with hard and fast 

 divisions separated by sti'ict lines of demarkation. In a general way 

 it may be said that the collection contains imitations of animal heads, 

 vessels of various forms, circular-lobed disks, and objects like mortars 

 with animal heads appended on one or both margins, recalling in that 

 respect pottery bowls or vases. 



Among a great variety of animal heads of grotesque form several 

 specimens distinctly resemble human heads, and among animal 

 forms the bird, turtle, or some reptile is recognizable, but the re- 

 semblance is so aften so imperfect that close comparison with stone 

 or pottery heads from St. Vincent and other West Indian islands 

 is very difficult. They are highly conventionalized productions. 

 Some of them have a close likeness to the carapaces of crabs and 

 one or two are fish-like in form. Lateral extensions on the borders 

 of others recall wings of flying animals. These lateral extensions 

 impart a triangular form to the object when seen from above, the 

 bod}' being represented by an enlargement with a well-defined head 

 with mouth and eyes at one end. A quite distinctive form is circular 

 or oval with lobes separated by depressions extending from center 

 to circumference. In many these lobes are regular, but in a few 

 one or more of these bodies are absent, making an asymmetrical 

 form consisting of a central circular region around which is grouped 

 a ring of enlarged bodies. These bodies often do not extend com- 

 pletely around the periphery, imparting a more or less U shape to 

 the object. The number of lobes varies; several have seven or eight, 

 others a smaller number. 



Several specimens have a form that might well be likened to the 

 whorls of a seashell, consisting of a coiled body terminating in a 

 spine with an open end such as occurs in the ordinary conch shell 

 or other univalve moUusca. Comparisons with animal forms are, 

 however, not very close, for the objects are too crude to allow accurate 

 comparisons. 



POTTERY 



The pottery from St. Vincent, Carriacou, Grenada, and other 

 islands of this culture center is judged largely from fragments; no 

 whole specimens occur in known collections from these islands. These 

 fragments, however, especially those from Carriacou, one of the 

 Grenadas, are characteristic and have distinctive features that readily 

 separate them from those of Trinidad, St. Kitts, Porto Rico, and 

 Santo Domingo. The larger number of pottery fragments from 

 St. Vincent belong to the so-called red ware, which there is every 



