104 



SCIENCE. 



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



its way into the hands of the collector. 

 This object taken from a cave near 

 Maniel, west of the city of Santo Domingo, 

 was figured in my article on zemis from 

 Santo Domingo, and again in Dr. Cronan's 

 history of tlae discovery of America. The 

 body, made of woven fabrics with arms 

 akimbo, is in a sitting posture, while the 

 head is covered with cotton fabric, with ar- 

 tificial eyes inserted in the sockets of the 

 skull. This specimen, one of the most in- 

 structive of all objects illustrating the An- 

 tillean cultus, was undoubtedly reverenced 

 and regarded as an object of worship. 



It is instructive in view of the ancestor 

 worship which this specimen indicates 

 to refer to certain mortuary customs 

 of the prehistoric Antilleans as recorded 

 by Oviedo. After describing the custom 

 of wife burial with the dead, he says that 

 in the interment of certain caciques the 

 natives envelop the body in cotton cloth, 

 place it in a grave which they cover with 

 boughs and sticks, depositing with the dead 

 the objects he prized most highly. The 

 corpse was placed in the grave in a sitting 

 posture on a seat called a dulio, and for 

 many days after burial areitos or cere- 

 monial dances were held in its honor, in 

 which the virtues of the deceased and his 

 many good deeds in peace or war were ex- 

 tolled. No reference is made to the sub- 

 sequent fate of the skeleton, but it is more 

 than likely that it was later removed from 

 its grave, which may account for the fail- 

 ure of archeologists to find the ancient 

 Antillean sepultures. 



The archeological material available for 

 the study of the Antillean cidtus is more 

 complete than the historical, for there are 

 several large collections in which many of 

 these . objects made of stone and wood are 

 found in different museums in Europe and 

 America, and still remain on the islands of 

 Porto Rico and Santo Domingo, where 



there are several private collections of 

 great value. The Latimer collection in the 

 Smithsonian and the Stahl collection in the 

 American Museum of New York are the 

 largest in the United States, while the Neu- 

 man and Nazario collections on the island 

 of Porto Rico are of great size. 



A typical form of Porto Rican stone idol 

 has a conical elevation, to which Mason has 

 given the suggestive name 'mammiform 

 figures.' The general character of these 

 stones and the various bizarre animal heads 

 which they represent answer all the docu- 

 mentary descriptions of zemis, and the fact 

 that a similar object figured by Charlevoix 

 with the legend 'zemi' proves their identi- 

 ty. This identification has been questioned 

 in some quarters because in the majority of 

 specimens the lower surface is concave, sug- 

 gesting that they were used as paint mor- 

 tars, but in a collection which I have ex- 

 amined at Bayamon this surface is convex 

 and ornamented with incised lines, making 

 it impossible for them to be used as mortars 

 or for grinding purposes. 



We find these zemis differing very greatly 

 in size, in the kind of rock of which they 

 were made, aiid the artistic finish. It is 

 probable that they were once decorated 

 with gold eyes and ear ornaments, Avhich 

 additions have, however, long ago disap- 

 peared. They represent frogs, birds, rep- 

 tiles and various other animals with bizarre 

 shapes, or are carved to represent grotesque 

 human faces with body and limbs, as a rule, 

 very reduced in size. 



The most problematical structure of the 

 mammiform zemi is a conical projection 

 which most of them bear on their backs. It 

 has suggested to Mason a symbol of the 

 characteristic mountains of Porto Rico and 

 other West Indian islands, the whole stone 

 figure representing the genius of Boriquen, 

 or a myth analogous to the story of Typhoe- 

 us. 



