* REPORT OP THE SECRETARY. 35 



an overhanging side of the cave, and were buried about 2 feet in the guano and 

 soil ; beneath thesecrania were human long-bones, crossed. Several fragments 

 of a single skull or of several skulls were embedded in a hard stalagmitic 

 formation over the deposit of loug-bones. No Indian implements or pottery- 

 accompanied the bones, and no fossils were found in association with them. So 

 far as recorded this is the first instance of the finding of skeletal remains of 

 cave man in the Isle of Pines. Their general appearance and mode of burial 

 were the same as in the case of those discovered by Drs. Montone and Carlos 

 de la Torre. 



Dr. Fewkes also examined, in the Isle of Pines, about 30 structures known 

 as cacimbas, their Indian name. These are vase-shaped, subterranean recep- 

 tacles, averaging 6 feet in depth and 4 feet in maximum diameter, generally 

 constricted to about 2 feet at the neck, and with the opening level with the 

 surface of the ground. Although these cacimbas are generally ascribed to the 

 Indians, they are thought by some to be of Spanish origin, and are connected 

 by others with buccaneers, pirates, and slavers. They are built of masonry or 

 cut in the solid rock; the sides are often plastered and the bottoms commonly 

 covered with a layer of tar. On the ground near the openings there is gener- 

 ally a level, circular space, with raised periphery. The whole appearance sup- 

 ports the theory that these structures were used in the manufacture of turpen- 

 tine or tar, the circular area being the oven and the cacimba the receptacle for 

 the product. 



Dr. Fewkes found that the Pineros, or natives of the island, employ many 

 aboriginal terms for animals, plants, and places, and in some instances two 

 Indian words are used for the same object. An acknowledged descendant of 

 a Cuban Indian explained this linguistic duality by saying that the Indians 

 of the eastern end of the Isle of Pines spoke a dialect different from those of 

 the western end, and that when those from Camaguey, who were Tainan and 

 of eastern Cuban origin, came to the Isle of Pines at the instance of the Spanish 

 authorities they brought with them a nomenclature different from that then 

 in use on that island. 



Several old Spanish structures of masonry, the dates of which are unknown, 

 were also examined in the neighborhood of Santa Fe, Isle of Pines. The roof 

 of a cave at Punta de Este, the southeastern angle of the island, bears ab- 

 original pictographs of the sun and other objects, suggesting that it is com- 

 parable with the cave in Haiti, in which, in Indian legend, the sun and the 

 moon originated and from which the races of man emerged. 



Dr. Fewkes has now collected sufficient material in Cuba to indicate that its 

 western end, including the Isle of Pines, was once inhabited by a cave-dwelling 

 people, low in culture and without agriculture. His observations support the 

 belief that this people were in that condition when Columbus visited the Isle of 

 Pines and that they were survivors of the Guanahatibibes, a cave-dwelling 

 population formerly occupying the whole of Cuba and represented in Porto 

 Rico and other islands of the West Indies. 



Dr. Fewkes also visited several of the coral keys southwest of Isle of Pines, 

 but, finding no aboriginal traces, he crossed the channel to Cayman Grande, 

 about 250 miles from Nueva Gerona. The Cayman group consists of coral 

 islands built on a submarine continuation of the mountains of Santiago 

 Province. Cuba. A cave with Indian bones and pottery, probably of Carib 

 origin, was found near Boddentown on the eastern end of the island, and a 

 few stone implements were obtained from natives, but as these specimens may 

 have been brought from adjacent shores they afford little evidence of a former 

 aboriginal population of Cayman Grande. Tbe elevation of the Cayman 

 Islands, computed from the annual accretion, would indicate that Cayman 



