Origins of the Tainan Culture, West Indies

firing.

Preface

In all regions around the world, there are always a few publications that become classics and survive the passage of time. Many of these books are not only jewels of past scholarship, but they are still used today either because they contain or synthesize old information, or because their ideas and interpretations of the past are still as valid as the day they were published. The Origins of Tainan Culture, West Indies is one of these books and is still quoted by most Caribbean archaeologists. The author of this book, Sven Lovén, was a Swedish anthropologist of whose life we have very little information. Moreover, it is unclear how he became interested on this topic or if he visited the region at all. The book was first published in German in 1924, updated and translated into English for this 1935 edition. Although the book is directed to the Tainan culture of the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico), in reality it discusses aspects of the prehistory of the whole archipelago, from Trinidad and Tobago to Cuba and the Bahamas. In his description of the ancient cultures of the Caribbean, Loven masterfully combines archaeological, ethnographic, and ethnohistoric sources, a deed that only few people can do. Although it is true that many authors combine these types of data, very few can say that they actually master the three types of sources the way Lovén did.

The chapters of the book are organized by topics, including the immigration and origin of the native people of the islands, architecture, different types of artifacts and technology, social organization, funerary customs, and religion. There is no doubt that, at the time of its publication, this book was the most complete publication on Caribbean archaeology. Even today it contains information that cannot be found elsewhere.

Perhaps one of the most important contributions of the book is not only the description of the archaeological, ethnographic, and ethnohistoric data, but also Lovén's interpretations. Although I cannot say that I agree with all of his conclusions and ideas, a majority of them are still valid and accepted by the scientific community in the Caribbean. Even many of the ideas that are not well accepted, still must be considered in any debate on the archaeology of the region.

Despite the fact that this publication is widely cited and appreciated by all students of Caribbean archaeology, it is difficult to find. Our intention with the publication of this facsimile edition is to make it more accessible to a great number of interested people, including Caribbean archaeologists, students, and historians as well as all people of the Caribbean interested in their cultural history.

L. Antonio Curet, series editor

CHAPTER I.

Immigrations and Indian Elements in the West Indies.

The distance from the Antilles with their southernmost island, Grenada, to Trinidad (and Tobago) and even to the mainland of South America, is not larger than migrations from this continent to the islands could have been established by tribes possessing sufficient good crafts. Farther on there was no difficulty in crossing from one island to another along the range of the Lesser Antilles. Firstly between the northern Leeward Islands and the Virgin Islands there is a gap, which ought to make traffic more difficult.

Of primitive tribes of different culture there remain nowadays in Venezuela only the Warraus in the delta of the Orinoco, another complex in the Raudal district, as well as the remnants of the Otomacos. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries primitive tribes were still found in a district situated between the Serrania del Interior and the Orinoco. Up till now archaeology, however, has not been able to prove that in the West Indies there ever lived any primitive pre-Arawak Southamerican immigrants.

Florida evidently played an important part when the northern West Indian Islands were first invaded by foreigners. It has been proved that a people coming from Florida, the Siboneyes, once settled on the coasts of Cuba from the east to the west. This was a primitive tribe that left Florida at a period previous to the settlement in this peninsula of tribes on a higher cultural stage.

Whether such a primitive tribe also penetrated into Española is a question still open to discussion. Up till now we do not know from Puerto Rico of any finds whatever originating from a primitive pre-Arawak people. Of great interest is HATT'S discovery of a settlement on the Krum Bay in St. Thomas. Its primitive inhabitants who used stone celts cannot be identic with the Cuban Siboneyes, but already the fact that ochre has been found, points to a North American origin. Unfortunately we do not know the part played by the Bahamas in the supposed pre-Arawakan migrations from North America.

The distance to cover for to reach Jamaica from Cuba or Española is so great that it may be questioned if it was possible for a primitive people to do so. Even in a big Jamaican canoe MENDEZ had great difficulty in crossing from Jamaica to Española. No undisputable finds originating from a primitive pre-Arawakan tribe living in Jamaica have hitherto been brought to light.

It is, however, a matter of fact that the Island Arawaks have practically penetrated into all the West Indian Islands. In the following I shall make a distinction between the Tainos, the Island-Arawaks living in the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas at the time of the Discovery, and the Ignéris, the Island-Arawaks inhabiting the Lesser Antilles when the Caribs immigrated. Ignéri, probably the Arawak word eyeri, men, was a name given by the Island-Caribs to the Arawak Islanders which they conquered and extinguished. I have borrowed the term from the French authors of the 17-th century.

Leaving Trinidad aside, we know four distinct races in the West Indies properly speaking, from historical sources. The names are given in the order in which they must have immigrated.

1. Guanahatabeyes (Siboneyes)

2. Island-Arawaks.

3. Maçoriges (Ciguayos).¹)

4. Island-Caribs.

The Guanahatabeyes.

Only in the extreme western part of Cuba can we establish a pre-Arawak race in the Antilles at the time of the Conquest with any degree of probability. These Guanahatabeyes are mentioned in the Mission Report by LAS CASAS²) and also in 1514 in VELASQUEZ’ report to the King of Spain. LAS CASAS pictures them as unos indios al cabo de Cuba, los quales son como salvajes, que en ninguna cosa tratan con los de la isla, ni tienen casas, están en cuevas contino, sino es cuando salen á pescar. Llamanse guanahacabeyes.³) The report of VELASQUEZ states that a Spanish brigantine had visited the western part of Cuba. The inhabitants were described as living in the following manner: Poniente están la una (that is provincia) se llama Guaniguanies é la otra Guanahatabibes,⁴) que son los postreros indios dellas; y que la vivienda destos guanahatabibes es á manera de salvajes, porque no tienen casas ni pueblos, ni labranzas ni comen otra cosa sino las carnes que toman por los montes y tortugas y pescado.⁵)

Dr. PEDRO GARCIA VALDES has shown that the discoverers and conquerors of Cuba were never in Pinar del Rio, that without exception none of them at any time had ever seen Guanahatabeyes, so that consequently the Spanish informants of that time lack authentic knowledge of that race. In this he is indisputably right, as well as in the assumption that the numerous finds in Pinar del Rio prove that Tainos must once have lived there. All the same, we must except the San Antonio district. The existence of a strange, primitive pre-Taino race with extension at one time over the whole island of Cuba is brought to light through Harrington's extensive investigations, and even established in Pinar del Rio. If the remnants of that older, primitive people still lived in the most western part of Cuba at the time of the Conquest, is another question. Not only did none of the conquerors have the opportunity of seeing these Guanahatabeyes, but also the information obtained from the Cuban Tainos about the general cultural standpoint of this race, does not harmonize with their proper character as established by the conclusions to which COSCULLUELA and HARRINGTON came, through their excavations of the Cuban dwelling-sites. The traditions that Guanahatabeyes were still now and then found living in Pinar del Rio, as late as the middle of the nineteenth century, I cannot find confirmed by any document.⁶) But I will mention that accounts of wild Indians killing the cattle of the colonists of Pinar del Rio with their arrows and the rewards offered for their extermination on this account, can be traced back to the beginning of the seventeenth century. It is to be assumed that they have been destroyed since then. Unfortunately I have not succeeded in finding any information about this.

MARTYR and OVIEDO, have cited troglodytes, similar to the Guanahatabeyes also in Guacayarima, the long southwestern peninsula of Española including Mornes de la Hotte. MARTYR says: "It is said that there is a district of a savana in the most westerly province of Guaccaiarima inhabited by people who only live in caverns and eat nothing but the products of the forest. They have never been civilised nor had any intercourse with any other races of men. They live, so it is said, as people did in the golden age, without fixed homes or crops or culture; neither do they have a definite language. They are seen from time to time, but it has never been possible to capture one, for if, whenever they come they see anybody other than natives approaching them, they escape with the celerity of a deer."⁷)

The first part of the description has an indiscutible similarity to that of Velasquez of the Guanahatabeyes of Cuba; and furthermore as in its continuation information follows about bitumen on the reefs of Hispaniola,⁸) Cuba and not Española must have been meant.

OVIEDO says⁹) that a very savage race lived in caves in the province of Guaicayarima. They neither sowed nor cultivated the fields, but lived from hand to mouth. All property was held in common, with the exception of their wives. Aquesta gente fué la mas salvaje que hasta agora se ha visto en las Indias. It must be remarked that this refers to the place to which OBANDO advanced in Xaraguá in 1503, and that at this date, which was before his arrival to Española, OVIEDO had a very limited knowledge of the island.

FEWKES cites LAS CASAS and VELASQUEZ unreservedly in regard to the Guanahatabeyes in "Prehistoric Culture of Cuba", and also mentions the assertion of MARTYR, that a similar race of people existed in the extreme western part of Haiti at the time of the Conquest.¹⁰)

Fortunately LAS CASAS has lived in the towns of the province of Hanyguayabá, which includes the extreme peninsula in the southwestern part of the island of which Guacayarima is the very point. For this reason he is able to confirm that the inhabitants there were Tainos, having the same economical conditions and manner of living as the others on the island. He contradicts OVIEDO and says: mal supo lo que dijo, porque no vivian sino en pueblos y tenian sus señores que los regian, y á su modo como los demas, (namely the rest of the Haitian Tainos) su communal policía; porque áun la misma tierra, por ser como un jardin, aunque quisieran vivir selváticmente, no se lo consentiera; y ni habia cuevas ni espeluncas como él dice, presumiendo demostrar que sabe nominativos, sino muy graciosos campos y arboledas, donde tenian sus asientos de pueblos y sembraban y cogian, é yo comí hartas veces de los frutos del pan y de otras cosas que su industria y trabajos procedian. La Guacayarima, que dice ser otra distinta provincia (lo que no es) porque tiene punta della (that is, Hanyguaybá), junto á la mar, ciertas entradas o peñas, que llaman Xagueyes los indios, como en la provincia de Higuey, que los habia tan grandes, que podian vivir en ellos muchos vecinos pero no vivian sino en sus grandes pueblos; allí se escondian cuando la calamidad de los españoles los perseguia, y porque huyendo dellos, algunos allí escondidos hallarian.¹¹)

Indeed, MARTYR mentions a tradition, according to which the former inhabitants of the islands (the Greater Antilles) lived on roots, palms and magueys.¹²) But in truth this tradition could also have had a mythological significance, explaining a condition which existed before a hero of the race had discovered yuca and maize, in this manner making a myth fit the conditions in Española.¹²)

I can cite reasons for this opinion, based on Arawak myths from the continent of South America. Among the Tarumas, an Arawak tribe in the interior of British Guiana, the legendary brothers, Ajijeko and Duid, ate only nuts and fruit in the beginning, until the first woman cut off the tail of their father, the anaconda, and out of this obtained the seeds, cuttings and fruits of the first plants to be cultivated for food.¹³) The Paressis, also Arawaks, in ancient times ate jatoba fruit, biriti nuts, edible fungus wood and earth, until their progenitor found wild manioc roots deep in the woods and brought home the roots.¹⁴)

If we turn to archeology and take into consideration HARRINGTON'S finds in Pinar del Rio, it is very obvious that he found there an exclusively typical Siboneyan culture in the San Antonio district, indeed a karstland, but whose eastern lowland has layers of soil, also surface waters and is covered with a rich overgrowth of forests and jungles. The only objects of Taino,—or perhaps rather sub-Taino—, culture which HARRINGTON found in the San Antonio region, consisted of two large pieces of undecorated aboriginal pottery, in Cueva Funche, a cave of otherwise pure Siboneyan culture.¹⁵) They only prove that the Siboneyes lived here contemporaneously with the Tainos farther to the East. Then too, archeology does indicate that the last of the Siboneyes took refuge in the almost inaccessible forests and jungles in the northern part of the San Antonio region, and that this district was never Tainan. In other parts of Cuba, as far as has been investigated, Siboneyan as well as Taino sites exist. Indeed, occasional objects of Taino workmanship are found in sites with pure Siboneyan culture, showing that in some regions at one time the Siboneyes dwelt alongside of the Tainos. But at the time, of the Conquest, the greater part of the island had come completely made Tainan. The sites investigated by HARRINGTON in the San Antonio region with one exception lie some distance inland, but near the Enseñada de Guadima. In regard to the settlement itself, the Siboneys were above all things dependent on near access to fresh water. The largest of these Siboneyan sites in the San Antonio district and the one that yielded the greatest abundance of finds, The Great Midden, lies near the little lake with crystal-clear water in the Valle San Juan. Good water is also found in the caves of this region. Although the Siboneyes of the San Antonio district lived inland, they nevertheless procured their food from the sea. Their refuse contains snail and mussel shells and among them are found as well oyster and crab shells, bones of turtles and hutias; but on the other hand, Harrington does not mention the presence of fishbones¹⁶) finding however beads of three kinds of fish-vertabras, more or less ground. Cosculluela calls the Siboneys veritable fish-eaters, but brings into prominence the fact that in their refuse, above all, the shells of molluscs are found.¹⁷) In the San Antonio region, they seem to have been collectors of food along the shore rather than fishers. However, I do not know if access to fish was more difficult in the Enseñada de Guadima than along various other parts of the Cuban coast. As to boats, material for them could easily be procured in the forests of this region.

The differences between the Siboneyan and Taino cultures are radical and show themselves generally to be the same over the whole island. This is brought out clearly by HARRINGTON'S extensive investigations.¹⁸) The Siboneyan culture is far poorer than that of the Tainos. It was a veritable shell culture. They made the gouges out of conch-shell, as well as vessels.

If a race uses shell as material for axe-blades, this in itself does not prove them to be primitive. Such a thing has been known to have occurred on many of the islands that once had an Island-Arawak population, which entirely lacked suitable material for the production of axes. For the same reason axes of conch-shell are very common on Barbados, where axes of stone could only be imported. One would expect to find axes of shell more general on the Bahama Islands, where suitable stone is non-existant, but because of the lively trade which the Lucayos carried on with Cuba and Española in tle period before the Discovery, they seem to have succeeded in bringing about the importation of the far more effective greenstone celts from those islands. Both upon the Greater and Lesser Antilles, where there is suitable rock for making celt and axe blades, axes of shell are found in regions along the coast where semifossil Strombus gigas occur. Evidently they are Tainan because they are found on Taino sites. The same is true on St. Croix,¹⁹) on Santo Domingo,²⁰) and on Jamaica.²¹) Scattering finds of axes of shell are made on several islands, which for the rest have rock suitable for axe blades. I can cite in addition Guadeloupe²²) and St. Kitts.²³) Only two types of axe-blades of shell are to be distinguished among those which belonged to the Tainos, Igneris or possibly Island-Caribs. On Barbados they retained a part of the spiral of the conch.²⁴) IM THURN called this the shoe-horn type. But otherwise everywhere, and particularily on Barbados, they have produced a flat petaloid celt type by striking off the whorl and grinding the sides.²⁵) A specimen of this type of petaloid celt, made of shell, has been excavated by HARRINGTON from a cave at Obando, in Oriente, Cuba, which contained principally Siboneyan culture, and he is of the opinion that the celt is Siboneyan, also.²⁶) The possibility can be suggested that although the Siboneys made such axes of conch-shell, the type is also Taino and intended to imitate the petaloid axe-blades of stone. The West Indian petaloid shell celts of Strombus gigas are flat and the whorls are not very conspicuous. The diverging sides are often ground straight. The edge is not so sharp as in the Siboneyan gouges and as a usual thing it is only ground from the inside of a piece of conch-shell. On Barbados, the island which is most pointed out as having axes of shell, their development had reached so far, that with only shell for material they produced celts resembling in form the customary petaloid celts of stone of the Island-Arawaks.²⁷) Celts of shell occur also on Curaçao and Aruba, and here even with sides ground straight.²⁸) Celts or hoe blades of shell, of different forms, poorly chipped and badly ground are found in Yucatan,²⁹) where suitable material for axes is lacking except when the limestone contains flint.³⁰) But in Yucatan they seem never to have made it their aim to work out the form of the shell celts as carefully as in the Antilles or in Florida. Their principal care was that the edge should be ground quite sharp.

Florida's western and southwestern Keys lack stone and they have made large axes or hoes of the entire Fulgur Perversum. But in Florida, as well as in other of the Southeastern States, they copied stone axeblade types in shell.³¹) They made use of this material in Florida because there is no suitable stone accessible. Certainly no stone celts were found in the shell-mounds investigated by WYMAN in the St. John's River district in Florida. But there they treated shell exactly as if it were stone. Therefore, knowledge of stone-axes was not lacking.

The Siboneyan culture had the character of a veritable conch-shell culture. They did not make stone axes, nor had they any pottery. In both cases conch-shell material was used as equivalent.

Their conch gouges are of an entirely different type and of another cut of snail-shell, than the shell celts of the Island-Arawaks. The latter are made of the projecting lip of Strombus gigas. The gouges of the Siboneyes are made of the lower point of the spire of the conch, a species which HARRINGTON does not name.³²) Furthermore, they must have been made from some other kind of snail than the Strombus. Gouges of that rounded form in the shell-mounds of Florida are made of two species of Fulgur (Busycon).³³) Presumably in their selection of shell the Siboneys followed the traditions of Florida, which they adhered to in Cuba. WYMAN'S chisel-shaped tools³⁴) are unlike the Siboneyan gouges, however, so far as they lack the orifice of the conch, but the sharp grinding away of the edge is entirely like the latter. For types exactly like the Siboneyan I have only to cite HARRINGTON'S statement that such gouges are found in the shell-heaps of Florida.³⁵)

The Siboneyan culture presents itself as a veritable conch-shell culture not alone because the axe-blades are made of conch-shell, but by the fact their vessels are made of the same material. Only in exceptional cases have they secured pottery vessels from the Cuban Tainos.

The Siboneyan vessels of shell are of a primitive type. They were produced only by broadening out of the orifice of the conch.³⁶) Sometimes this broadening extends along the entire length of the shell.³⁷) Drinking cups of conch-shell with only the orifice broadened out, occur on the west coast Florida in a culture otherwise with richly developed pottery.³⁸) According to HOLMES, similar drinking cups of Fulgur perversum, which is a Florida conch,³⁹) were still used by by the chiefs of the Timuquas at the time of the French Huguenots visit to the mouth of the St. John's River, Florida, in 1562—1564. The completely open Siboneyan vessels of conch-shell are clumsily carved out and not halved with a distinct cut. Other Antillean conch cups are found in caves in the province of Samaná, in Santo Domingo. They are bisected straight across and the spiral is taken well out of the conch shell.⁴⁰) Implements and utensils of shell predominate in these caves to the practical exclusion of manufactured objects of pottery and stone.⁴¹)

Possibly later investigations can prove exact the hypothesis that a pre-Arawak race of North American origin once existed in Española. Meanwhile the halved Santo Domingo conch-shell vessels can not be looked upon as equivalent to the Siboneyan, without further ado. Moreover, if they did not belong to some primitive race of North American origin, they must at any rate be an adaption of something which originated on that continent. It is singular how the Indians of the Southeastern States and Mississippi Valley, even after they had arrived at a developed pottery, continued to use vessels of conch-shell, and that for that purpose they imported sea conches from the Gulf of Mexico far inland.⁴²) This constant use of conch-shells as drinking-cups among primitive peoples appears among the Indians of Tierra del Fuego, who drink water out of brooks from these, and then fill them again and carry them home.⁴³) The Siboneyes must have had other receptacles, just as the Fuegans still have, of what material I do not know, but at any rate not of clay, before they procured pottery vessels from the Tainos.

In his summary HARRINGTON only cites the objects of conch-shell as being common both for certain shell-heaps of Florida and the Siboneyan culture in Cuba.⁴⁴) Presumably the forefathers of the Siboneyes also carried with them the art of chipping flint from Florida to Cuba, even if at present we have not been able to point out exactly Siboneyan types in Florida.

In shell-mounds of the St. John's River district which either completely lack pottery or in whose inferior layers it is lacking, both WYMAN and MOORE have found that there are some few artifacts of flint. From this fact, Wyman drew the conclusion that flint implements are the most ancient and earthern vessels the next.⁴⁵)

The older flint age, which lacks pottery and moreover in the St. John's River district shows itself still poorer than the Siboneyan, is for the rest not equivalent to it. As a general thing arrow-heads are the only flint artifacts in these strata.⁴⁶) In Cuba up to the present time only one point of stone has been found and HARRINGTON puts the question if this can not really be looked upon to represent a knife.⁴⁷)

Flint does not occur in the region of the St. John's River,⁴⁸) for which reason it must have been imported.⁴⁹) It must therefore have been valuable to the primitive Indians of this district. Flint objects in the mounds are only those that have been thrown away. WYMAN often found fireplaces but never a flint workshop.⁵⁰) If arrow-points became damaged or misshapen, they could not be restored and possibly used as knives, while other flint artifacts which the Indians eventually had, when unfit for use, could be rendered serviceable again by another chipping and were preserved the longest time possible. As has been said, the scanty finds of primitive pre-ceramic culture in Florida consist of, as far as we can ascertain up to the present time, only one kind of artifact, namely arrowpoints.

If we look for Siboneyan flint artifacts in either the younger or higher cultures of Florida, we find only weak and hypothetical analogies.

Lengthy, elliptical knives of chipped chert, with handle shaped like a knob⁵¹) as in the Stone Age of Japan, are unlike any Siboneyan type.⁵²)

The discoidal knife-scraper has its principal range in the central part of the Mississippi-Ohio basin and is not found any nearer the coast than Tennessee.⁵³) Possibly the crescent of chert⁵⁴) can have had the same object as the Siboneyan implement with concave edge, but otherwise without decided external contour,⁵⁵) as if for dressing down arrow- or spear-shafts.⁵⁶)

Some of the Siboneyan artifacts of flint are found in similar forms in the middens of Tierra del Fuego. For instance, the discoidal scraper has a strikingly similar counterpart.⁵⁷) The knives of Tierra del Fuego follow the usual primitive stages of development.⁵⁸) Nevertheless, with the slight knowledge that we yet possess of America's oldest archeology, it would be too early to express an opinion on the question, if some convergence from a primitive Indian substratum presents itself here. Exactly these same artifacts actually arose very early in Europe also, as soon as they had really taught themselves the flaking of flint. In certain instances the Stone Age of Tierra del Fuego reached a higher phase of development than that of the Siboneyes. Beautiful triangular arrow-points occur, with tangs and barbs made by pressure.⁵⁹) These belong to a later stage of development.

By rotation the Siboneyes have produced mortar-holes in the solid rock or in suitable naturally flat stones, for the grinding of hematite. This also must be considered a primitive North American characteristic.⁶⁰) In this they differ decidedly from the Cuban Tainos, as HARRINGTON shows.

The Siboneyes also knew the art of grinding, although they never advanced approximately so far as the Tainos by this method. Thus they lacked entirely stone axes, to say nothing of stone sculpture. That grinding was known originally by the Siboneyes is shown by the fact that so strong an integral culture element as their simple, almost circular hammerstones⁶¹) for the grinding of hematite, must have received their shape through grinding, although it is true that they selected stones naturally of a suitable form. Their flint knife-scrapers could also have a polished back side.⁶²) On the other hand, when they wished to give their stone mortars a cylindrical form, they understood how to do it only by flakening off big pieces.⁶³)

In conclusion, an important indication of the North American origin of the Siboneyes is that they used hematite for producing a red colour, contrary to the Tainos, who once brought over bixa from South America to the Greater Antilles, for the painting red of the body. In Siboneyan caves and dwelling-sites, Harrington often found paint stones of hematite.⁶⁴) One stone mortar for the grinding of colour was still red from the hematite colour.⁶⁵)

The using of hematite as colour for body-painting occurs up to a late time in North America. Hematite is often found in graves in the United States and even in culture with highly developed pottery and many other elements in the Southeastern States.⁶⁶) In the lower culture strata of the St. John's River region, WYMAN often found traces of red ochre. Ochre (hematite) for colouring the body red, is one of the primitive culture elements, which was always retained in North America and carried up into higher cultures. In this case the reason is entirely natural. Bixa is a tropical growth, cultivated by the Indians in South America and the West Indies, and has never been introduced into North America. The use of ochre for painting the body presents itself as a primitive element, originating among the wandering, poor and rude collecting and hunting races along the coast of Texas, who smeared and coloured their faces and hair with it.⁶⁷) The Fuegans, who belong to a primitive Indian race-stratum, use as colouring material for the painting of their bodies, a reddish yellow clay, which is burnt to a brick-red colour.⁶⁸)

Up to the present time the Siboneyan culture in the West Indies has only been established in Cuba. FEWKES, although assuming its extension not only in Cuba, but also over all the West Indies,⁶⁹) has not been able to confirm this hypothesis as yet by the finds that have been made.

According to him, this culture should be found in Florida, south of a line drawn eastward from Charlotte Harbor to the Atlantic Coast, lying under a higher culture with pottery originated in the North.⁷⁰) Possibly Siboneyan culture does exist in the shell-heaps of this region. But until further notice, for its existence in Florida we have only to take HARRINGTON'S statement.

The lower culture which FEWKES himself excavated on Weeden Island, to judge from what he says, can not be looked upon as equivalent to the Siboneyan. Even if it should belong to a precolumbian period, its development gives it the effect of being younger than the Siboneyan, let alone the fact that it is poorer in elements. It contains many objects of shell and bone.⁷¹) Like the Siboneyan, it is certainly a shell-culture but otherwise is without typical similarities. The numerous drinking-cups have the lip artificially smoothed and the spire formed into a handle. That is, a more advanced stage of development than the Siboneyes’ crudely cut snail-shell . . . FEWKES refers to MOORE'S illustrations for weapons made from fossil conch shell. Not a single one of the characteristic Siboneyan gouges is found reproduced as coming from MOORE'S excavations on the west coast of Florida. Moreover, Fewkes found in the same layers on Weeden Island circular disks or elongated plates for suspension.⁷²) The Siboneyes had only assymetrical, poorly-made beads of shell. It is true that shell disks of the above-mentioned kind are also found on the northern Greater Antilles and the Virgin Islands, but in the Taino culture, and the Floridian influence must have been of later date in this as well as some other cases, which I shall treat later on.

HATT'S excavations on St. Thomas show us that a primitive North American culture, different from the Siboneyan, migrated to the West Indies. The abundant occurrence of hematite, together with hammer-stones for grinding it, in the small shell-heaps at Krum Bay, St. Thomas, must⁷³) be considered as meaning that this culture proceded from a race that emigrated from North America to the West Indies. It is with good reason that HATT does not identify his Krum Bay culture with the Siboneyan. It is not a conch-shell culture, as is the case with the Siboneyan. It contains a number of specimens of a peculiar long and narrow type of stone axe,⁷⁴) different as to form from the slender petaloid celts, which are found on the dwelling-sites of the Island-Arawaks on the Virgin Islands. Hatt found only a few small fragments of pottery, by themselves on the surface of the shell-heaps. He says nothing about conch vessels. Indeed, it can be possible that the Krum Bay race had vessels of wood or bark.

The shell-heaps lie on rocky ground and land suitable for cultivation is not found in the vicinity. It is likely, therefore, that the Krum Bay people were seashore-collectors and fishers. Krum Bay is very sheltered, so that these primitive Indians could lie out there in small craft and fish.

It is likely that they had been settled on other islands nearer, the Northamerican mainland, before they came to St. Thomas.

Since the Krum Bay culture is not a conch-shell culture, it can scarcely be that it came from the west or south coasts of Florida, where the Siboneys must have originated. It must have come from some region containing stone in the parts of the Atlantic Coast of the United States, located in the vicinity of the nearer West Indies, perhaps Georgia and by way of Bahamas.

As has already been said, WYMAN came to the conclusion that the pottery in the region of the St. John's River is younger than the chipped flint. Later, MOORE also came to the same conclusion as a result of his excavations in this district, extending over a greater area and carried out with greater resources at his command.⁷⁵) Pottery filled so great a want in the lives of the aborigines and so was so extensively used by the makers of the shell-heaps where it was found at all, that it seems impossible to account for its absence upon any hypothesis other than the one suggested, namely that if a trace of pottery lacked in culture layers, then the makers of the layers must have been without it.

With regards to the Krum Bay culture, it is also of great importance to learn just when, in the ages gone by, the stone axe made its first appearance in Florida. It seems to me that there is good reason to consider it, like pottery, to be younger than flint flaking. The Indians of Tierra del Fuego, who have a comparatively highly developed flint culture, lack not only pottery but also stone axes. In Florida it seems that not pottery alone, but axes as well are missing from WYMAN'S excavations of the lower primitive culture in the St. John's River district. The axe-blades he found were cultures younger than the most primitive, which nevertheless contained chipped flint. They were all of shell. As that was used only as material for the production of stone-axe types, it can clearly be seen that stone-axes were the prototypes. These shell axes are found in cultures with pottery. WYMAN'S excavations did not include a mound containing the highest cultures within the region. The pottery is of coarse material, but already stamped specimens occur; smoking-pipes and metals were lacking. Above all, MOORE has investigated higher, and probably younger, cultures in this section containing highly and richly developed pottery, smoking-pipes, also copper, gold and silver, and many more things. In these higher cultures occur also ground stone celts, and among them oblong celts,⁷⁶) although they are not of equal breadth to those of the Krum Bay culture. The finds made in Florida and Georgia up to the present time leave us without a clue as to the origin of the Krum Bay culture on the continent. So much only can be said in general, that while the Siboneyes must have set out from the stonefree coast in southern or south-western Florida, on the other hand the makers of the Krum Bay culture must have started from a more northern locality, where there was native or imported stone, and probably on the Atlantic side of the peninsula.

The stone axe is in northeastern Florida younger than the flint implements. With our present knowledge of Florida, it can only be said that it, with its substitute, the imitated axe of shell material, made its appearance there at the same time as the first pottery, and that later on stone axes in other and highly developed ground forms came in with still higher cultures.

On that account it is remarkable that the Krum Bay culture lacks pottery . . But it is indeed conceivable that this culture migrated from the continent at a time when its makers were procuring clay vessels for themselves from higher standing races through barter, and had not yet learned how to make them. On the other hand, they could already make a primitive type oblong celt for themselves.

At the time before the Discovery, Florida, especially in the interior but also along the west coast, was in the possession of races with a far higher culture than that which is conceded to the Siboneyes. CUSHING'S Key Marco discoveries gave us evidence of a decidedly higher culture, in spite of the fact that it lacks stone axes and clay vessels, because it had no resources of raw materials. Strand-collectors, fisher- and hunter-races of sufficiently low culture to be possibly compared with the Siboneyes, were at the Discovery only found on the east coast of Florida.

According to the oldest Spanish sources of information, the Indians of the Florida Keys were of a race which could not be compared to the Guanahatabeyes in cultural quality without further consideration. Escalante FONTANEDA⁷⁷) describes the Indians on Los Martires.⁷⁸) (Florida Keys) They were tall and of pleasing appearance. The men went about in skins and wore besides only unos bragueros tejidos de palma, con que los hombres cubren sus verguenzas, y las mujeres unas yerbas que nacen de unos árboles;⁷⁹) estas yerbas parecen lana, aunque son differente.⁸⁰) Like the Guanahatabeyes, who lived exclusively by fishing and hunting, these Indians of the Florida Keys obtained the greater part of their sustenance by the same methods. Su comida ordinaria es pescado, y tortugas, y caracoles que todo es pescado, y atunes y ballenas, segun vi estando entre ellos y algunos destos indios comen lobos marinos, aunque no todos, porque hay differencia entre mayores y menores. Hay otro pescado que acá llamamos langostas, y otro como a manera de chapin.⁸¹) But the hunting also must have had for them an especial significance, which we can only conceive with great difficulty to-day, when all the wild animals have been exterminated. At that time there were venados there, and FONTANEDA mentions other mammals, which were hunted not only for food, but whose skins were sought.⁸²) Nevertheless, FONTANEDA does not say that the Indians of the Florida Keys lived exclusively by hunting and fishing. The larger of these islands, at least, could not have been without land suitable for Indian agriculture, even if the layer of humus were thin.⁸³)

If we follow the Florida Keys to their root, we find that the Indians who have lived on the mainland in the vicinity Laguna de Mayami, the Tequestas, can still less be likened to the Guanahatabeyes.⁸⁴) Possibly better analogies can be found along Florida's east coast.

Moreover, FONTANEDA localizes the short journey of Lucas Vasquez, which went precisely along the east coast of Florida towards the North. Oritza and Chicora⁸⁵) were the objectives of this expedition, but it was interrupted prematurely⁸⁶) and according to FONTANEDA, Vasquez only visited gente misera, aunque hay algunas perlecillas en algunas conchas; comen pescado, ostiones asados y crudos, venados, corzos y otros animales; y al tiempo que los matan ellos, las mujeres acarrean leña y agua, para cocer o asar en parillas.⁸⁷)

If we understand parilla as meaning a stand for roasting, then this race of fishers and hunters of the east coast of Florida had barbacoas, on which fish and game not only were roasted, but boiled. Barbacoas characterize the higher culture stage in the lowlands of South America. In North America I know of wooden gridirons on four poles in North America from the Timuquas at the mouth of the St. John's River, and from the Secotan on the coast of North Carolina. But setting aside barbacoas, and with them perhaps cooking pots, there is nothing to prevent us from thinking that we have to do here with a race somewhat the same cultural stage as the Guanahatabeyes.

Above all things and in addition to this, what we learn from FONTANEDA'S account is that in later Taino times, the initiative to transmarine communication lay on the side of the Cubans. Indeed, at the time of the discovery of Cuba they had large canoes, to which the Indians of Florida could scarcely have had a counter-part. But an emigration from Florida to Cuba is also not inconceivable, indeed it is even more natural than vice versa, as Cuba is sometimes visible from Key West in clear weather. Moreover, in this case the strong currents would have a less terrifying effect.

In general, all that we know of the Guanahatabeyes is that they were a race of fishers, hunters, and collectors that had not developed any Indian agriculture. It is said that they had no houses, but this is certainly to be understood in the Taino sense and therefore it is probable that they had at least sheds. They may have crawled into holes in case of storm and rain, but as a rule the climate there is such, that there is no reason why the night could not be passed in the open air. LAS CASAS’ statement that they lived in caves must not be taken as in complete harmony with the reality. Indeed, he himself was never in the extreme western part of Cuba and never observed the Guanahatabeyes. The western sierras of Cuba are the richest in caves of any region of the island,⁸⁸) and for that reason the Tainos, who lived in houses, could very easily have conceived the idea that among the Guanahatabeyes caves compensated for the lack of regular houses. At the same time, naturally, it is not out of the question that in arid Pinar del Rio caves represented suitable dwelling places.⁸⁹)

FEWKES distinguishes a particular pre-Arawak race of troglodytes, which he represents as following along the arc of islands from the South American continent, but he does not cite archeological proof of its existence. It is only in recent times that HARRINGTON has concluded to identify things found in certain Cuban caves, as originating from a primitive race of fishers being of North American origin. But with this exception, and perhaps also of the caves along the south shore of Samana Bay, the material in the caves of the rest of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas has shown itself to be equivalent to that found in the village-sites. In both cases it is of such a nature that we have every ground to suppose that it proceeds from the Island-Arawaks. Furthermore if in exceptional cases the caves of the West Indies show evidence of having been inhabited, for the greater part they appear to have served the Island-Arawaks as mausoleums or grotto-temples, where sacrificial feasts were offered to the spirits of the dead, as is best shown by the discoveries made by MONTANÉ in the cave Boca del Plurial, in Cuba.⁹⁰)

The theory of a primitive race of troglodytes in the Lesser Antilles is a contradictio in adjecto. With the exception of Barbados, only few caves do exist in these islands. Moreover, FEWKES himself must have learned by experience that the caves of Trinidad did not contain human remains.⁹¹)

If we turn to South America, the nearest caves to the West Indies are in the Paria Peninsula, but as far as I know they are without any traces of mankind. In this connection we will not take into consideration the finds with secondary burial in large vases of clay in shelters in the the Raudal region of the Orinoco. Interesting human remains have been found in many caves in different parts of the Andes. But the class and quality of the cultures are very different. Perhaps in the majority of cases these caves also have served as burial, or for the worship of the spirits, like many of the Island-Arawaks of the West Indies. However, in connection with a primitive race of fishers, we must take into account the fact that UHLE found a cave at Pichalo, near Pisagua, inhabited by an aboriginal people, who ate seaweeds.⁹²)

In the regions of tropical South America still inhabited by primitive races, caves that show signs of having been used as dwellings can only be found in eastern Brazil,⁹³) and very rarely at that.

Great importance must be given to LAS CASAS’ assertions about the Guanahatabeyes, that en ninguna cosa tratan con los de la isla. By this it is clearly shown that this aboriginal race had assimilated with the Taino immigrants only with great difficulty. Moreover, a race of pure fishers inhabited the southern cayos of Cuba, but at the time of the Discovery, they were living in a dependent state under the protection of the Taino chiefs of the main island. Their ethnical origin can not be established but otherwise they were tainized.

Up to the present date only in Cuba has the culture sequence been clearly determined; the older Siboneyan stratum, then the younger Sub-Taino and Taino. With the exception of the Krum Bay culture on St. John, investigated by HATT, we know nothing firmly established about pre-Arawak immigrations to the rest of the West Indies; they may well have started either from North America or South America.

The Island-Arawaks.

The immigration of the Arawaks to the West Indies must have taken place in waves. Originally they must have been attracted to the most southern of the Lesser Antilles by the good fishing. Later, when they found the islands suitable for the cultivation of yuca, they made permanent settlements there. Upon such larger islands, local, higher and more independent cultural developments have taken place. This is well expressed in FEWKES able Culture Areas. How these concretions started, we can as yet only perceive in individual places. On the southern Lesser Antilles, the development was in a high degree affected by later influences from the South American continent, which the Igneris further completed according to their state of mind. Particularly in the carving of stone axes and other carved smaller stone objects, this local development became rich and individual. The South American influences which arrived after the principal emigration of the Arawaks from South America advanced weaker and weaker, the further toward the North they came, and are scarcely noticeable on Jamaica, the most distant island. On Puerto Rico and Española, between which two islands there was frequent communication, a superior culture was developed, mostly from native resources and with influences of more subordinate significance from South America coming from over the Lesser Antilles and Virgin Islands, together with others from Florida and from Yucatan, which culture—in so far as it concerns Cuba—HARRINGTON calls Taino Culture. For I must mention that this had come over from Haiti by emigration to Cuba, where, especially in the plateau land of Oriente, the population which arrived shortly before the Discovery was very numerous, as the abundance of finds proves. On the other hand, HATT'S investigations have made clear that at a late date a Taino emigration took place from Puerto Rico to the Virgin Islands, which appears to be younger than an older South American influenced Ignerian culture. Cuba's older Arawak culture is poorer and not so highly developed as the Taino culture, that came in at a late time from Haiti. HARRINGTON calls this older Cuban Arawak culture, sub-tainan culture. He will even extend the term and make it designate the Arawak culture on Jamaica. But precisely on Jamaica, the Arawak culture has advanced to an indiginous development turning aside from the rest of the Greater Antilles and little dependent on the specific Taino cultural evolution of Española and Puerto Rico. Because of this, the Jamaican culture remains poorer than the Españolan-Puerto Rican. Outside influences have not furnished many contributions. Evidently Jamaica stood in immediate communication with northern Central America, while the South and North American elements remained in the Taino culture, and did not pass over from Española or eastern Cuba to Jamaica. The Jamaican culture is too high and uniquely developed to be classified with the sub-Tainan in Cuba. It surely has been developed on Jamaica since the Arawaks took possession of that island. Therefore, we can talk of a hypothetical sub-Taino stage in Jamaica, only so far as that this emigrated to the island at a time when the Taino culture was not yet developed on Española to say nothing of eastern Cuba.

There exists a great coherence otherwise within the entire culture of the Island-Arawaks. This is true above all for the Tainos, the Arawak race which at the time of the Conquest, still lived on the Greater Antilles and the Bahama Islands. Even if on searching the historical sources more thoroughly, we can learn this fact only for Española, yet be it remarked that the Spaniards did not find on any of the other islands Indian cultures that manifested themselves to be of another kind before the strangers. But unfortunately they did not pay much attention to local differences. These we get to know better through archeology. As pervading similarities in the Island Arawak culture from Jamaica down to the most Southern of the Lesser Antilles, can only be cited here the petaloid celt and a certain kind of archaic pottery with clay faces or heads, although it is a fact that this latter varies considerably. The culture of the Igneris we can only know for the greater part through archeology and for the rest in the historical sources through constituent parts that remained among the Island-Carib wives, who, with Island-Arawak ancestry, going back to a time shortly before the Discovery, even in the seventeenth century brought up their daughters in their own native language to do woman's work with utensils and technic from the Igneri time, and also taught them something of the old Igneri religious ideas, which often differed characteristically from those of the Caribs. In this manner, we get evidence of a vanished race with essential likenesses in speech and culture to the Taino, who at the time of the Discovery by femal individuals still remained alive.

The Taino far away from South America, illustrates best of all that the great Arawak emigration to the Antilles took place at a time before the tribes of the tropical lowlands of South America had yet enriched themselves with different cultural properties, which therefore remained foreign to the Tainos. The smaller number of cultural elements among this race and also in a certain measure the archaic stage of development of their pottery, make it necessary for us to put back the date of the emigration of the Island-Arawak from the continent to a time considerably remote.

In addition, as the Island-Arawaks have been in the West Indies a very long time, the expansion of the Arawak race on the South American continent not only must be placed back in distant ages, but also it must completed for the most part at a very distant time.

The Arawak Race on the Continent.

We have not yet reached the point where we can fix upon the centre of expansion of the Arawak tribes on the South American continent with exactitude. It is believed that the Arawaks were the first to propagate the cultivation of manioc, the use of the older⁹⁴) hammocks made of fibre or bast, and the production of clay vessels in the lowlands. EHRENREICH considers them also the principal propagators of tobacco and maize cultivativation.⁹⁵)

Indeed the directions of the movement of the wanderings of the Arawak tribes in Venezuela and Guiana indicate the fact that they set out from two different centres here, and this again is a sign that we have to do here with a more recent processes than the first phases of emigration. I will only mention here, that with regard to the practicability of investigation of the centres of expansion and directions of migration, I have found it convenient to divide the Arawaks into two classes: a) River Arawaks, who spread themselves by means of the large, gently flowing streams, and b) Maritime Arawaks, who expanded by way of the sea. To the last-named the Island-Arawaks belong. In this work I will take into consideration only the Maritime Arawaks, and particularly, the Island-Arawaks.

To what degree the Maritime Arawaks in pre-Spanish times had extended themselves along the north coast of South America to the West, or if their center of expansion lay further west than Paria, can likewise have no direct significance with respect to the emigration of the Island-Arawaks to the Antilles.

As the base of this emigration we must consider Trinidad, or the adjacent Paria. The Orinoco is not what Martius means by an Arawak river, that is, a great, calmly flowing lowland stream, with dry soil bying behind suitable for the cultivation of yuca. It should also be added, a river on which the Arawaks could easily undertake journeys in their large canoes, which are not fit for turbulent streams. Such gently-flowing rivers in South America are conducive not only to the settlements of the Arawak tribes, but also to their geographical expansion. Only at certain points does the lower Orinoco afford locations suitable for Arawak colonization and the cultivation of yuca. An Arawak settlement, rich in cassava and maize once lay at the base of the delta. This dominant center was the large town Huyaparí (Carib) or Aruacay (Arawak), located on a hill on the north side where the Macareo branches off. At the time of the Discovery the Caribs held the sway but the larger part of the population were Nepoyes, an Arawak tribe that also was settled on Trinidad. Higher up, the banks of the Orinoco are for the most part desolate and sterile, or in some places there are swampy morichales. The moriche palms furnish the staple food of the Guaraunos, whose settlement on the delta was of older date. Better economical condition begin to prevail for the first time when we advance up to the large Indian town, Cabrutu, which was rich in maize. Somewhat higher up the falls commence and there is a region where a group of dissimilar tribes of a low grade of culture are still living, not only on the east where masses of granite occur, but also on the sterile llanoos of the west side. Not till we pass beyond the navigable portion of the Orinoco's course do we meet with Arawak tribes.

It is indeed certain, that the True Arawaks still live adjoining to the most southern affluent of the Orinoco, that their settlement at an earlier period possessed an influence on the lower Orinoco, far greater than at the present time, and also that in distant times they had passed up the river with their fleets, beyond the bend at Cabrutu. Later, in their respective connections, I will return to the similarities between the Tainos and the Orinoco tribes in respect to their chairs and secondary burial in baskets in their huts, which were only pointed out by FEWKES in a general way. The Arawak races of the Upper Orinoco are River Arawaks and probably came from the Southeast by way of the Rio Negro route and its continuation. In connection with the emigration of the Island-Arawaks to the Antilles consequently, we have nothing to do with these Arawak tribes.

As I will mention later, there are certain archeological circumstances which indicate that the True Arawaks once came from Trinidad into the lowlands southeast of the middle course of the Orinoco. This is in harmony with their own traditions, also. When the True Arawaks met the Spaniards for the first time, a tradition was still current among them of a time when they lived in Guiana, how they had journeyed on the sea along the coast, found the land fertile and had settled there for that reason. Indeed, RODRIGO NAVARRETE says that they had come from the East,⁹⁶) but here might very well be a mistake in the longitude. BRINTON, in his article⁹⁷) which until lately has been too little regarded, cites myths from BRETT, according to which it appears that the Arawaks formerly lived on an island in the North, which must be Trinidad. An Arawak semi-cici,⁹⁸) who was converted to Christianity and in 1841 became catechumen, related some of the Arawak mythology to BRETT, and when asked where these incidents had taken place, answered, "Not in this land, but at Kaieri (an island)", pointing with his hand to the northward.⁹⁹) The Arawaks of Trinidad, moreover, called their island Cairi.¹⁰⁰) In addition, according to the information obtained by English navigators along the coast of Guiana in the seventeenth century, the True Arawaks had come thither from Trinidad.¹⁰¹)

From the above it must be inferred that there is no reason to suppose that at the present time the True Arawaks are still inhabiting in the mother-country of the Tainos. On the other hand, these two tribes closely related by blood must have had a common centre of expansion in Trinidad.

Paria.

I have already mentioned that once upon a time the Arawaks must have inhabited both sides of the Gulf of Paria. This can not be proved linguistically,¹⁰²) but all the other outward signs and accounts indicate that the Parians were Arawaks and not Caribs. When COLUMBUS visited them on his third voyage, they presented themselves to him in their canoes not at all in an unfriendly manner, but like genuine Arawaks very anxious to trade. They had round shields of wood, while the Arawak races of Trinidad who fought against Sedeño, used partly round¹⁰³) shields and partly square¹⁰⁴) ones, and the True Arawaks in Guiana large wooden bucklers¹⁰⁵) of cork-wood. The Englishmen who in 1606 arrived at the region near the mouth of the Wiapoco, found that the Arawaks there had wooden-bucklers.¹⁰⁶) The only Carib characteristic that the Parians had, was the use of poisoned arrows.¹⁰⁷) But it could not have been that they themselves prepared the poison; they must have bartered it from afar, for on no account would they give away their arrows, while they willingly exchanged gold for brass. Moreover, the poisoned arrows of the Parians proved to be bad and did little harm to the Spaniards at a later date (at the beginning of the third decade of the sixteenth century).¹⁰⁸) Indeed, the majority of the Arawaks did not have poisoned arrows; as a matter of fact, they had shields as protection against the poisoned arrows of the Caribs. On the other hand, the Island-Caribs had neither bouclier nor any other protective weapon.¹⁰⁹)

These Parians formed a part of a commercial chain engaged in the traffic of caracolis of guanin¹¹⁰) from the West, and like the Arawaks, they sold such things to their enemies, the Island-Caribs.¹¹¹) As a matter of fact, we know from the account of RODRIGO NAVARRETE,¹¹²) that the Arawaks lived not only on the island of Trinidad, but also on the continent around the Gulf of Paria.¹¹²) FIGUEROA also says (1520), viniendo por la costa hasta el golfo de Paria hay otra provincia que llega hasta la que dize de Aruaca. He describes the Parians at Unicaco as guatiaos é amigos de los cristianos é que tratan é conversan con los cristianos pacificamente, é con los otros guatiaos, amigos de los cristianos. The Indians at Boca del Drago, who lived here on both coasts of the peninsula of Paria, de mar a mar, were also guatiaos y amigos.¹¹³) But for the