The Aborigines of Porto Rico and Neighboring IslandsJohnson Reprint Corporation, 1970 - 296 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
aboriginal Aguebana amulets ANNUAL REPORT PL Antillean Arawak Archbishop Meriño collection body Borinqueños bowl British West Indies BUREAU OF AMERICAN cacique called Carib carved cassava cave celts ceremonies Columbus conical projection Cuba dance decorated panel described duho ears elbow stone evidently eyes face views figure flat forehead fragments Front and lateral front views groove Haiti Haitians handle houses human face images Imbert collection inches inclosures indicated island Jamaica Juan Lateral and face lateral views Latimer collection legs length Lesser Antilles mentioned mouth natives Neumann collection nose Orinoco ornamented Oviedo panel border perforated pestle pictographs pillar stones pits plate Ponce Porto Rico posterior pottery Professor Mason Puerto Puerto Plata relief represented resembling ridge rock Santo Domingo Señor shell shows side views Spaniards St Vincent stone collars stone heads stone implements surface three-pointed stones TWENTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT undecorated Utuado views of specimen West Indian zemis
Popular passages
Page 53 - Oaribs slightly diverge from the method of making bread, in that they pound the meal in a mortar before sifting it, and, if it is to be kept for any leng'th of time before use, slightly smoke it. The bread thus produced is much more friable, and much more easily digestible than that made by the ordinary process. When cassava is very scarce its bulk is sometimes increased by mixing the chopped leaves of the cassava plant, or the poumled seed of the mora tree (Mora excelsa), or of the greenheart tree...
Page 109 - A string of seventy small chalcedony beads, about the size of peas. They are quite perfectly rounded and perforated— some of them in two directions. This is the most remarkable sample of aboriginal stone polishing and drilling that has ever come under the observation of the writer. It is exceedingly doubtful whether another collection of so many witnesses of savage patience and skill has been found anywhere in one specimen.
Page 198 - Indian deities in wood, found in June, 1792, in a natural cave near the summit of a mountain, called "Spots...
Page 52 - ... another woman stands, and, grasping one of the peeled roots with both hands, scrapes it up and down an oblong board or grater studded with small fragments of stone and so roughened like a nutmeg grater. One end of the grater stands in a trough on the ground, the other rests against the woman's knees. It is violent exercise. As the woman scrapes, her body swings down and up again from her hips. The rhythmic "swish " caused by the scraping of the juicy root is the chief sound in the house, for...
Page 168 - Skene, who first drew attention to these remarkable relics, suggests the probability of the peculiar natural features of Glenroy having led to the selection of this amphitheatre for the scene of ancient public games ; and that these stone collars might commemorate the victor in the chariot race, as the tripods still existing record the victor in the Choragic games of Athens. But no circumstances attending their discovery are known which could aid conjecture either as to the period or purpose of their...
Page 96 - ... Turk's Island, by Mr. George J. Gibbs, and kindly lent by him to be cast and engraved. (Fig. 11.) A still more interesting and precious relic, from the same locality, and found by the same gentleman, is that given in figure 12, which represents a celt in the handle, the whole being gracefully carved out of a single piece of jadeite. A beautiful ax, similarly carved from a single piece, is figured and described in Jones's Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee. — (Smithsonian Contributions, No. 259...
Page 117 - The frontal band is ornamented with incised lines, and there is a median pit surrounded by a ring. The specimen is made of white stone. Professor Mason thus describes a similar object: A dark, mottled, volcanic stone. The face has been very much battered by time. There is an elevated band across the forehead, making the furrows narrow and deep. The right side is fuller than the left, and the bottom elevated and hollowed out. Length 7.95, width 3.5, height 4 inches. In plate XLI, a and a' represent...
Page 82 - In my studies of one of these inclosures at Utuado I found that the main road from that town to Adjuntas had cut through the edge of one of the mounds,* revealing, a few feet below the surface, a layer of soil containing fragments of pottery, a few broken celts, and the long bones of an adult. This discovery induced me to extend a trench diametrically through the mound, parallel with the side?
Page 52 - ... the use of which will presently appear. The cassava, saturated with its highly poisonous juice, is now forced into the matapie; through the loop at the bottom of this a heavy pole is passed, one end of which is allowed to rest on the ground and is there fastened by means of a heavy stone or some other device, while the other is raised in the air.
Page 26 - We are friends.' The designation 'taino' has been used by several writers as a characteristic name for the Antillean race. Since it is both significant and euphonious, it may be adopted as a convenient substitute for the adjective 'Antillean' to designate a cultural type.