HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



men. It is commonly known as the quartz cylinder, and has become 

 familiar to all anthropologists through the work of Dr Koch-Grim- 

 berg. x 



Neither the on'e shown here nor those figured by Dr Koch-Griin- 

 berg and others are perfect cylinders; they are always larger in the 

 middle than at the ends, but lack the graceful lines of the West Indian 

 pendants. 



Dr Koch-Griinberg's explorations were carried on in the north- 

 western part of Brazil and on the western tributaries of the Rio 

 Negro in Colombia. His linguistic map 2 of this region shows that 

 dialects of the Arawak stock are spoken in fourteen, and dialects of 

 the Carib stock in four of the localities visited by him. 



At a settlement on the Rio Tiquie Dr Koch-Griinberg saw one of 

 these pendants made. He says: 



I saw here the process of making the quartz cylinder that nearly all the 

 male inhabitants wear about their necks. The bright white stone comes from a 

 place on the left bank of the Tiquie deep in the forest, in the earth. A suitable 

 piece is broken off, and the required form given it by blows of another piece of 

 quartz. The blows are lightly given by a stone the size of a fist, which has been 

 rounded off by much use, in the same way as if one desired to strike fire. Then 

 the cylinder is ground on sandstone and polished with fine sand or pumice from 

 the upper Solimoes, which is brought in small quantities to the Uaupes Indians 

 from this long distance over the Yapura. Thus far the preparation of the quartz 

 cylinder has been the tedious work of many months, because the Indian only 

 now and then finds time to work on it. Not less tiresome and slow is the work 

 of perforating it. 



The Indian holds the cylinder firmly on the ground with his feet, and with 

 both hands twirls a stick of Paxiuba wood on the hard stone, while from time to 

 time he adds fine white sand, but no water. In beginning the perforation a small 

 lump of pitch is placed on the rounded slippery quartz, that the stick, while being 

 twirled, shall not slip off before the hole is deep enough to hold it in place. A 

 number of Paxiuba sticks are necessary to complete the boring, as they must be 

 continually repointed. 3 



On the same page Koch-Griinberg states that the cylinders are 

 rarely perforated through their length, and that these are considered 

 very precious by the Indians. It is interesting to note that one in 

 the Museum's collection from the Island of Jamaica is thus perforated; 

 it has a second boring near one end to meet the long one. 



The prehistoric cylindrical pendants from the West Indies, and 

 those in use today in northwestern Brazil and in parts of Colombia, 



1 Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern. 

 - Ibid., vol. I, facing p. i. 

 3 Ibid., vol. i, p. 326. 



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