FEWKEsJ CULTURE AKEAS IN THE WEST INDIES • 129 



(ruESDE Collection 



The most important collection from the Lesser Antilles, next in 

 size to that owned by Mr. Heye, is the celebrated Guesde collection 

 made many years ago in Guadeloupe and now in the Berlin Museum 

 fiir ViJlkerkunde. This collection was brought to the attention of 

 the scientific world by the late Prof. Otis T. Mason, whose account of 

 it will remain an important pioneer work on the antiquity of the 

 Lesser Antilles, as that on the Latimer collection is the first of im- 

 portance on the antiquities of Porto Rico. There are about 600 speci- 

 mens of the Guesde collection in Berlin, of which about a third were 

 described by Prof. Mason. 



Masdn thus refers to the nature of the material used in the prep- 

 aration of his monograph on the Guesde collection: "The edi- 

 tor of this monograph sincerely regrets that he has not the 

 specimens before him; but it was impossible to transport with 

 safety so many valuable objects to Washington, and equally impos- 

 sible for the editor to make the journey to Guadeloupe. Fortunately 

 M. Guesde has painted in water colors, with scrupulous care, all of 

 the examples figured, preserving both the color and the size. The 

 omission of the thickness would somewhat mar the description in 

 many cases were we not familiar with the two typical forms of 

 blades so frequently figured here."" Many of these specimens are 

 described in the following pages with objects in the Heye Museum; 

 the general type of antiquities from this island are so closely related 

 to those of St. Vincent that they are included in the same area. 



The following quotation from M. Guesde, who made the Guesde 

 collection, is copied from Mason '^'^ and gives a good idea of the nature 

 and variety of objects found at Guadeloupe. 



" From my youth I have always been deeply impressed with what 

 I have read about the Caribs. The sight of the stone objects which 

 once belonged to these primitive inhabitants of the Antilles produced 

 an indescribable impression on me. 



"As years went by the stronger became my desire to collect together 

 all that the soil of Guadeloupe might contain relating to the Caribs. 



" I accordingly went to work in the year 1866, and after 18 years 

 of constant research, never allowing myself to be discouraged by 

 any difficulty, I have the satisfaction of being able to exhibit to 

 ethnologists this collection, which I believe to be more complete than 

 all others now existing, in Paris as well as in America. 



"My collection includes roughly worked stones indicating an in- 

 dustry in its infancy ; and others, on the contrary, which are brought 



" Mason, op. cit.. p. 732. The closing lines account for the fact that several rubbing 

 stones were Identified as blades. 

 "•Op. cit., pp. 733-740. 



160658°— 34 ETH— 22 9 



