July 1R, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



99 



clothing was not needed for warmth and a 

 liberal covering of paint protected their 

 bodies from the heat of the tropical sun 

 and the bites of troublesome insects. 



The most characteristic of all objects 

 made by the Caribs were the canoes, with 

 which they navigated from island to island 

 or traveled along the numerous rivers and 

 lag'oons. These craft often reached a 

 great size and were in some instances made 

 of logs of wood hollowed out with stone 

 tools aided by fire. If there is one fea- 

 ture which more than others distinguishes 

 this Antillean culture it is the' development 

 of their maritime habits, of which these 

 canoes are the objective expression, but 

 this characteristic was highly developed be- 

 fore the race landed on the islands. Canoe 

 building had reached a considerable devel- 

 opment in their primitive original homes, 

 and made it possible for the tribes to mi- 

 grate to the islands. ' 



The number of stone implements in col- 

 lections from Porto Rico is very large, in- 

 cluding objects of all sizes and many 

 shapes. The arms of warfare were mostly 

 adzes and hatchets with wooden handles, 

 war-clubs made of ironwood of the island, 

 spears and possibly throwing-sticks. In 

 the collections which were examined, no ar- 

 row points were found. As a rule the im- 

 plements from the Antilles are polished 

 stone, but I have seen two celts which show 

 marks of chipping. Most of these imple- 

 ments were of stone, but Mr. Yunghannis, 

 of Bayamon, has in his collection a celt 

 from Porto Rico made from the lip of a 

 conch shell like those used by the Caribs 

 of the Lesser Antilles. 



The height of culture attained by the 

 prehistoric inhabitants of Porto Rico, as 

 shown by their pictography, has been vari- 

 ously interpreted, but, so far as known, 

 the writing of this people was of the rudest 

 kind, consisting of pictures having the 

 same general character as the pictography 



of the North American Indians. Specimens 

 of this work are found on the fiat slabs of 

 stone used in the enclosed dance plazas or 

 on isolated bowlders. The soft, easily 

 eroded rock of the island does not retain 

 this paleography for any considerable 

 length of time, especially when exposed to 

 the weather. 



In the caves on the island there still re- 

 main many excellent specimens of picture 

 writing, some of the best of which are 

 studied near Ciales and Aquas Buenas in 

 the high mountains of the central region 

 of the island. Some of the caves are of 

 great beauty, among the most interesting 

 of the many natural attractions of Porto 

 Rico. They were resorted to by the In- 

 dians for religious purposes and later for 

 refuge, but there is no reason to suppose 

 that they were ever extensively peopled, for 

 the ancient Porto Ricans lived in the open 

 and were not trogloditic. 



An article published by Mr. Kriig con- 

 tains all that has yet appeared in print on 

 Boriquen pictography, which will be more 

 fully illustrated in my report on a reeon- 

 noissance of the island during the last 

 spring. The figures which were studied 

 appear to be clan totem and other symbols. 



From the accounts which have been pre- 

 served there is every probability that the 

 social organization of the inliabitants of 

 prehistoric Porto Rico was practically the 

 same as that of the Indians of other parts 

 of America. The unit of organization was 

 the clan, the chief of which was called a 

 cacique. 



It would appear that certain of these 

 caciques had control over others, governing 

 large sections of the island, and that a 

 union of several smaller caciques for mu- 

 tual defense occtirred at rare intervals. As 

 a rule there was no such union, caciques of 

 neighboring valleys were not friendly, 

 often hostile, making raids on each ather. 



