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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I48 



been found if Columbus had not described where they were in his 

 Journal. 



It appears to be characteristic of these people to believe that some- 

 thing strange or not understood comes from the sky. Columbus 

 understood that the Indians thought he and his men had come from 

 the sky. And yet, on October 12, Columbus wrote: 



I believe that they would easily be made Christians, because it seemed to me 

 that they belonged to no religion . . . 



Fig. 8. — Cassava, from which cassava bread is made today ; cassava griddles, such 

 as the one shown in the left foreground, were found in all field sites. 



Now, on the 14th, Columbus noted that they were "shouting and 

 giving thanks to God." In the letter (Morison, 1959) of his first 

 discoveries, he had written : 



And they know neither sect nor idolatry, with the exception that all believe 

 that the source of all power and goodness is in the sky, and in this belief they 

 everywhere received me, after they had overcome their fear. 



Today, the Arawak petaloid stone celts, which are found in the 

 open, on the surface of farms and old settlements, are made of a hard 

 green shiny stone unknown to these natives, and they call them "thun- 

 derbolts," thinking that when the thunder "claps," a stone falls from 

 the sky, and stays buried in the ground for 7 years. After this time. 



