FEWKES] WEST IXDIAN ARCHEOLOGICAL DATA 265 



representing the idol of the yiica phint. Porto Kican stone coUars 

 have certain resemblances to serpents with tail bound to the neck. 

 The collar stone thus becomes the idol of the great beneficent serpent, 

 Hiira kau, to whom the Antilleans prayed for rain for their yuca. 



The other important power worshiped by the Antilleans was 

 Mamona, or Tierra the earth. Mother Earth, the female element that 

 produces the yuca. A problematical stone idol of the Antillean that 

 is not less numerous than the stone collar is the three-pointed stone. 

 According to Pane tliree-pointed stones were worshiped " to make 

 the yuca grow." These are supposed to represent clan tutelaries, 

 children of the earth power. 



ORNAMENTS 



Although a considerable number of amulets, beads, and objects of 

 jDersonal adormnent are known from the West Indies, our knowledge 

 of these is mainly confined to the Haiti-Porto Rican area. We can 

 hardly expect any great difference in those from different islands, 

 since they are portable and no doubt were exchanged in trade even in 

 prehistoric times. Gold objects traveled in the hands of traders from 

 one end of the West Indies to another, and, although there is good 

 evidence that many ornaments of this metal existed on the islands 

 when discovered, no single specimen is now to be found in any of our 

 nuiseums. From contemporaneous descriptions of these objects that 

 have come down to us there is little doubt that the Antillean gold- 

 smiths were not less clever workmen in this line than their neighbors 

 on the Continent. The avidity with which they exchanged their work 

 for objects made of baser metal and the richness of the sources of 

 gold in the Cibao Mountains would seem to indicate a considerable 

 abundance of gold objects among the prehistoric Haitians, Porto 

 Ricans, and Cubans, and possibly renewed search may yet bring some 

 of these objects to light. 



There is little doubt that the aborigines of the (xreater Antilles had 

 more gold objects than those of the Lesser Antilles. 



