July 18, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



107 



placed. The cacique led the line of dancers, 

 and, when he had approached the entrance 

 to the temple, seated himself near the idol, 

 vigorously beating a drum to the sovind of 

 which the participants danced. The pro- 

 cession was composed of men, girls and 

 women. The men had their bodies painted 

 black, red, green and other colors and wore 

 many ornaments of shell, and feathers in 

 their heads. The girls and women bore 

 baskets of cakes ornamented with flowers. 



As the members of the procession ap- 

 proached the idol of the growth goddess 

 they raised the flowers and baskets of cakes 

 to the god as offerings with prayers, and 

 later these offerings were divided into frag- 

 nients and distributed among the people. 

 The public dance was preceded by secret 

 rites, but we have only fragmentary refer- 

 ences regarding the nature of these rites. 

 Benzoni records that the idol was decorated 

 before the arrival of the procession and 

 there are several references to the sprink- 

 ling of the same with prayer meal as occurs 

 in all Hopi ceremonial rites, and mention 

 is likewise made of ceremonial purification 

 as a preparation for the rites. 



"We have very fragmentary historical ac- 

 counts of the shape of the idol of the Earth 

 Mother, and the figures given by Charlevoix 

 and Pieard represent a head composed of 

 five different animals with that of the deer 

 in the center. As old Peter Martyr says 

 that the Haytians have several names for 

 an. idol in the form of a woman, one of 

 which is earth and the other mother, I have 

 ventured to translate her name Earth 

 Mother, and identify the ceremony as one 

 for growth of crops. 



Time does not permit me to describe in 

 detail this ceremony or to outline the rea- 

 soning which has led me to interpret it as 

 a festival of the goddess of growth, but 

 there is no doubt that the rites and the 

 dance before the image of the goddess of 



the earth have for their object the growth 

 of vegetation and increase of the crops 

 upon which the Haytian relied for food. 



Judging from the general life of primi- 

 tive man we are forced to the conclusion 

 that probably the majority of all the Antil- 

 lean dances mentioned by the early Spanish 

 writers were of a religious nature. As is 

 most universal in primitive ritual rhythm 

 played in them a most important role, and 

 they were accompanied by a rude drum 

 made of a log of wood or by a rasping of a 

 stick over an elongated gourd incised with 

 parallel lines. This latter instrument may 

 be of African parentage, but it is still rep- 

 resented in Porto Rican folk music and sold 

 to visitors as characteristic of the island. 



The poetic beauty of the songs recount- 

 ing the deeds of their ancestors in their 

 areitos did not escape the attention of 

 some of the chroniclers. We are tempted 

 to recognize in the Boriquen, a national 

 anthem of the Porto Ricans, some strains 

 of melody which may have survived from 

 aboriginal times, and the weird music which 

 one hears from the palm-covered house of 

 the mountaineer may yet be found to con- 

 tain Carib survivals. We know that by 

 royal edict of Ferdinand in 1513 the right 

 of holding their areitos or ceremonial 

 dances was allowed to the enslaved Indians, 

 and perhaps there may yet survive in the 

 cabins of the lowly at least some of the 

 melody of prehistoric Porto Rico. 



Whether there were special plazas set 

 apart for these dances is a question of some 

 interest, and in this connection may be 

 mentioned certain level places surrounded 

 by lines of stones set on edge found in sev- 

 eral localities in the island. These en- 

 closures are ordinarily supposed to have 

 been constructed for the game of ball, call- 

 ed hato, and are circular or rectangular in 

 shape. Some of these structures can still 

 be seen in the mountainous districts near 

 Utuado, and the sources of the Bayamon 



