668 
commission might well be financed by private 
funds so as to keep it from the almost certain 
bias of politics and sectionalism. 
Presentation of Specimens of Eolithic Form from 
Salinelles (Gard), France: CHARLES PEABODY. 
Dr. Marignan (Hérault) recently discovered 
chipped flints, which he considers to be eoliths. 
In spite of their localization the specimens are 
eoliths in facies probably rather than in actual 
age. Noteworthy is a series of discoidal hammers. 
The natural fractures of the flint and the outlines 
of the stones were carefully noted and compared 
with specimens from the Kent Plateau, Boncelles, 
ete. 
Cacimbas of the Isle of Pines (Cuba): J. WALTER 
FEWEES. 
The word cacimba, varying in form, apparently 
found in several linguistic stocks, is widely spread 
in aboriginal Latin-America, from the Andes in 
South America to the larger Antilles. It is sup- 
posed by most linguists and by natives generally, 
to be a purely aboriginal term signifying a recep- 
tacle or, in a slightly changed form, possibly 
another word, a pipe. In the Isle of Pines it is 
applied to a hill with reservoir-like depressions, 
and to a landing place called ‘‘ Embocadero de 
los Casimbas,’’ near Sigunea Bay, but mainly to 
certain artificial subterranean, vase-shaped recep- 
tacles occurring in various localities. The cacim- 
bas are always constructed under ground, where 
they are either cut out of the solid rock or built 
of rude masonry. In a few instances the lower 
portion is excavated and the upper or neck is 
formed of a wall of undressed stone. 
About thirty of these structures were examined 
in various localities in the Isle of Pines, others 
being reported from the south coast of the western 
end of Cuba. They occur near to or far from the 
banks of rivers, some distance from the seashore, 
in woods or open fields, singly or in clusters. The 
largest number was found near Nueva Gerona 
and Santa Fé, the latter situated in the middle of 
the island, where considerable quantities of tur- 
pentine were once made, as indicated by remains 
of ovens of undoubted Spanish manufacture. 
Isle of Pines cacimbas are accompanied, especially 
where the surface of the ground has not been 
greatly disturbed, by low circular mounds de- 
pressed in the middle but with raised rims varying 
from twenty to thirty feet in diameter, situated 
about the same distance away and overgrown with 
guano prieta or black-bark palmettos and under- 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou, XXXV. No. 904 
brush. The cacimbas average about five feet in 
depth; four feet is the greatest diameter and the 
narrowed, neck-like entrance, the rim of which is 
sometimes elevated a foot above the surface, has 
an orifice large enough to admit the human body. 
Their inner surface is generally smooth, plastered 
and blackened, the mortar in which the stones are 
laid being black, as if impregnated with tar. The 
floor is flat, circular, sloping slightly to the center, 
where, in one instance, there is a groove connect- 
ing with a covered trench which opens on the hill- 
side. A thin layer of tar was found covering the 
floors of several examples. When these cacimbas 
were cleaned out they were discovered to be about 
half full of rubbish, damp soil, débris and decay- 
ing leaves. No aboriginal implements or human 
bones occur in any of them, but there were in one 
a few fragments of Spanish pottery and the 
broken jaw of a domestic hog, with other animal 
skeletal remains. The moist earth in some cacim- 
bas is a favorite habitation for the Cuban crayfish, 
many specimens of which were taken from one of 
these structures near Mr. Allnuts’s home a short 
distance from Nueva Gerona. Trenches dug 
diametrically across the adjacent mounds revealed 
black layers containing ashes and charcoal with 
fragments of tar just below the humus, but no 
walls or aboriginal objects were observed in these 
mounds. 
The Isle of Pines cacimbas are almost uni- 
versally, and without hesitation, ascribed by the 
natives to the Indians. It is sometimes held that 
they were constructed by Caribs as storage places 
for tar and other objects, as their name implies, 
and one intelligent person affirmed that the build- 
ers were Indians working under Spanish direction. 
It is claimed by others that they were made by 
white men and were used as receptacles for tur- 
pentine, the neighboring mounds being the places 
where this substance was manufactured. One of 
those who held this opinion claimed that pine logs 
were so laid on the mound that their ends were 
brought to the center and application of heat 
caused tar to ooze from them into a pan or small 
receptacle, from which it was transferred to the 
eacimba. No reliable facts that would prove or 
disprove any of the current theories were obtain- 
able, but it is certainly strange, if these structures 
are of Indian manufacture, that no aboriginal 
objects or implements were ever found with them. 
Under the circumstances their origin remains one 
of the unsolved problems of the West Indian cul- 
ture history. However, the opinion of a very 
intelligent native of advanced years, who claimed 
