98 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 394. 



inhabited by poorer people, negroes or 

 peons. Some of these modern buildings 

 are of the rudest construction and prac- 

 tically the same as those which Oviedo 

 described, in Hayti, four centuries ago. 



It appears from early records that, at 

 the time of Columbus's first visit, the In- 

 dians lived in cabins scattered over the 

 island, but that here and there these prim- 

 itive dwellings were collected in pueblos. 

 'The pueblo of the Cacique Guaybana was 

 described by Muiioz in some detail. It was 

 situated back from the shore and con- 

 sisted of a circle of these cabins surround- 

 ing the central houses of the cacique. 

 Two parallel rows of palisades forming an 

 arbor united this pueblo with a lookout 

 ©n the beach, built somewhat higher as a 

 place of observation. It is probable that 

 the plaza enclosed by the ring of houses 

 was the dance place, and that the central 

 houses of the cacique contained the elan 

 idol and other objects used in the cult of 

 the inhabitants. 



Similar villages are reported as existing 

 in Cuba and Hayti, and it was probably 

 into one of these that the embassy of 

 Columbus to the Great Khan was con- 

 ducted, when they penetrated into the in- 

 terior of the former island. On their 

 return to the squadron this embassy re- 

 ported to the Admiral that they were es- 

 corted to a special house, probably that 

 of the cacique, seated on a wooden chair 

 (evidently a duho such as we now find in 

 several collections) made in imitation of 

 an animal and surrounded by natives who 

 also had their appropriate seats. The ac- 

 counts clearly indicate that the Spaniards 

 were regarded as supernatural beings, 

 carried to the god house of the pueblo, and 

 seated on the chair of the gods. 



The furniture of the house of the ancient 

 Porto Rican was limited but ample. The 

 bed was a hammock made of the leaves of 



the palm, maguey or fiber of native cotton. 

 In the mountainous regions of El Yunque 

 primitive hammocks, like those of the 

 ancients, are still made and the palm fiber 

 is wholly employed in their construction. 

 Calabashes or cocoanuts served for house- 

 hold implements as drinking cups, and in 

 the poorer parts of the island are still used 

 for the same purpose. We have every 

 reason to suppose that these ob,iects were 

 ornamented with incised geometrical fig- 

 ures, but whether the patterns now used in 

 the adornment of these objects have been 

 inherited from a Carib ancestry is yet to be 

 satisfactorily made out. 



Clay vessels of rude construction were 

 used by these Porto Rican Caribs who lived 

 along the shore. Multitudes of frag- 

 ments of these objects are found to-day in 

 several localities, one of the best of which 

 is the country about Cabo Rejo. These 

 clay vessels are, as a rule, of rude con- 

 struction, unglazed, their rims commonly 

 adorned with raised heads representing 

 animals of grotesque forms. The likeness 

 of many of these heads to monkeys has led 

 several writers to ascribe this pottery to 

 races living on islands or the mainland 

 inhabited by simian genera. There are 

 no monkeys in Porto Rico where these 

 heads are found and, as the clay objects are 

 most abundant along the shore, they are 

 generally ascribed to the Caribs. I have 

 examined several unbroken clay vessels 

 from the island which are undoubtedly of 

 Carib manufacture, all of which were orna- 

 mented in relief or intaglio, and regard this 

 supposed resemblance to monkeys' heads 

 as highly fanciful. 



According to the early writers the 

 men and girls had little clothing, but the 

 married women and caciques wore a woven 

 cloth of palm fiber called nagua, which 

 apparently resembled the breech cloth with 

 dependent ends. In the warm climate 



