APRIL 26, 1912] 
that he was a descendant of one of the Comarco 
Indians of the Isle of Pines, is worthy of record. 
He said that he had been told by his father, who 
came from Camaguey, that they were constructed 
by the Indians and that he had never heard that 
white men made them or used them as turpentine 
receptacles. Two cacimbas, situated about three 
miles from Nueva Gerona where the road to El 
Bobo forks, sending a branch to McKinley, are 
called Cueva de los Indios, although there is no 
cave in the vicinity. 
The morphological resemblance of the cacimbas 
to the chultunes of Guatemala and Yucatan is 
great. Cacimbas are ordinarily smaller and differ 
from chultunes in not containing aboriginal ob- 
jects. If the structures are Indian and pre- 
Columbian, of which I confess doubts, this unique 
fact is significant as being the only resemblance 
thus far found in the antiquities of western Cuba 
and the neighboring peninsula of Yucatan. No 
evidence can be presented to indicate that they are 
related to the cave men of Cuba or to those Indians 
whose skeletal remains were found in the Cueva 
de los Indios near Nueva Gerona. 
The Chultunes of Northern Guatemala: ALFRED 
M. TozzER. 
The subterranean cistern-like reservoirs called 
*chultunes’’ of northern Yucatan as described by 
Mr. E. H. Thompson in his paper on ‘‘The Chul- 
tunes of Labna’’ seem to have been intended pri- 
marily for the storage of water. They are found 
in most cases in regions where there are no nat- 
ural sink-holes or cenotes or other available source 
of water. In a few cases they may have been 
used as burial blaces. 
In northern Guatemala the country is well 
watered and there is little need of cisterns for 
the storage of rain-water. The chultunes, however, 
are far more frequent than in the peninsula to 
the north. A large number were mapped along 
the route taken by the Peabody Museum Expedi- 
tion of 1909-1910. They seem to stretch in long 
lines connecting the various ruined centers in this 
region. In addition, several were found in close 
proximity to the cities themselves. 
The chultunes of this region are of two types, 
the simple cistern-like subterranean chamber sim- 
ilar to those in the north and the lateral-chambered 
chultun. This second type is met with far more 
frequently than the first and consists of a room 
excavated out of the rock and opening from the 
bottom of the shaft. 
From the fact that these chultunes occur in 
SCIENCE 
669 
many places where there is an abundant supply 
of water, it may be argued that the storage of 
water is not the primary object of these subter- 
ranean rooms. Some were no doubt used as burial 
places. From a large lateral-chambered chultun 
at Yaloch a large collection of excellent Maya 
pottery has been taken out. From the manner 
of occurrence it seems probable that there was a 
burial here on the floor of the chamber, although 
no bones of any kind were found still existing in 
the three feet of earth which had been deposited 
in the chamber. Three examples of a tall bottom- 
less type of vase were found which are unique. 
Covers to jars were also common. 
Chultunes were also excavated at Chorro, Nakum 
and Holmul. From the large number of extensive 
groups of ruins in this area and the hundreds of 
small mounds and chultunes connecting these cen- 
ters with one another, together with the examples 
of pottery from this region, it may be seen that 
here in northern Guatemala we have perhaps the 
most important center of the Maya culture. 
The Mexican Maize Season in the Codex Fejérvary- 
Mayer: STANSBURY HaGar. 
On sheets 33 and 34 of the Codex Fejérvary- 
Mayer (Loubat edition) are two series of symbols 
including four paintings on each page, two above, 
two below. The four upper symbols, reading from 
right to left in the usual manner, picture the 
maturing of the maize crop during a period of 
four months: the lower symbols represent the 
deities governing the months mentioned. But the 
writer has presented evidence in a previous paper 
upon the ‘‘Hlements of the Maya and Mexican 
Zodiacs’’* that this sequence of deities also repre- 
sents the zodiacal signs Cancer, Leo, Virgo and 
Libra. These signs correspond with the months 
July, August, September, October, which correctly 
represent the maize season described upon the 
Mexican plateau. 
A Study of Biological Paleogeography in its Bear- 
ing on the Origin of Man in America: AUSTIN 
H. Cuark. 
From a study of the geographical distribution 
of animals we find indicated: (1) an Indian Ocean 
land extending from the Lesser Sunda Islands 
(Sumbava to Timor) to Ceylon, Madagascar, the 
Masearene Islands and southeastern Africa; (2) 
an Afro-Antillean land extending from the Mas- 
carene Islands and Madagascar across south cen- 
1Sixteenth Int. Cong. of Americanists, pp. 277 
et seq. 
