Origin Character And Customs Of The Primitive Inhabitants Of Boriquen


The origin of the primitive inhabitants of the West Indian Archipelago

has been the subject of much learned controversy, ending, like all

such discussions, in different theories and more or less verisimilar

conjecture.



It appears that at the time of the discovery these islands were

inhabited by three races of different origin. One of these races

occupied the Bahamas. Columbus describes them as simple, gen
rous,

peaceful creatures, whose only weapon was a pointed stick or cane.

They were of a light copper color, well-proportioned but slender,

rather good-looking, with aquiline noses, salient cheek-bones,

medium-sized mouths, long coarse hair. They had, perhaps, formerly

occupied the eastern part of the archipelago, whence they had

gradually disappeared, driven or exterminated by the Caribs, Caribos,

or Guaribos, a savage, warlike, and cruel race, which had invaded the

West Indies from the continent by way of the Orinoco, along the

tributaries of which river tribes of the same race are still to be

found. The larger Antilles, Cuba, Santo Domingo, and Puerto Rico, were

occupied by a race which probably originated from some part of the

southern division of the northern continent. The chroniclers mention

the Guaycures and others as their possible ancestors, and Stahl traces

their origin to a mixture of the Phoenicians with the aborigines of

remote antiquity.



The information which we possess with regard to the habits and customs

of the inhabitants of Boriquen at the time of discovery is too scanty

and too unreliable to permit us to form more than a speculative

opinion of the degree of culture attained by them.



Friar Abbad, in the fourth chapter of his history, gives us a

description of the character and customs of the people of Boriquen

taken wholly from the works of Oviedo, Herrera, Robertson, Raynal, and

others.



Like most of the aboriginal inhabitants of America, the natives of

Boriquen were copper-colored, but somewhat darker than the inhabitants

of the neighboring islands. They were shorter of stature than the

Spaniards, but corpulent and well-proportioned, with flat noses, wide

nostrils, dull eyes, bad teeth, narrow foreheads, the skull

artificially flattened before and behind so as to give it a conical

shape, with long, black, coarse hair, beardless and hairless on the

rest of the body. Says Oviedo: " ... Their heads were not like other

people's, their skulls were so hard and thick that the Christians by

fighting with them have learned not to strike them on the head because

the swords break."



Their whole appearance betrayed a lazy, indolent habit, and they

showed extreme aversion to labor or fatigue of any kind. They put

forth no exertion save what was necessary to obtain food, and only

rose from their "hamacas" or "jamacas," or shook off their habitual

indolence to play a game of ball (batey) or attend the dances

(areytos) which were accompanied by rude music and the chanting of

whatever happened to occupy their minds at the time.



Notwithstanding their indolence and the unsubstantial nature of their

food, they were comparatively strong and robust, as they proved in

many a personal tussle with the Spaniards.



Clothing was almost unknown. Only the women of mature age used an

apron of varying length, the rest, without distinction of age or sex,

were naked. They took great pains in painting their bodies with all

sorts of grotesque figures, the earthy coloring matter being laid on

by means of oily or resinous substances extracted from plants or

trees.



These coats of paint, when fresh, served as holiday attire, and

protected them from the bites of mosquitoes and other insects. The

dandies among them added to this airy apparel a few bright feathers in

their hair, a shell or two in their ears and nostrils. And the

caciques wore a disk of gold (guarim) the size of a large medal round

their necks to denote their rank.



The huts were built square or oblong, raised somewhat above the

ground, with only one opening for entrance and exit, cane being the

principal building material. The chief piece of furniture was the

"hamaca," made with creepers or strips of bark of the "emajagua" tree.

The "totumo" or "jigueera" furnished them with their domestic

utensils, as it furnishes the "jibaro" of to-day with his cups and

jugs and basins. Their mode of making fire was the universal one

practised by savages. Their arms were the usual macana and bow and

arrows, but they did not poison the arrows as did the Caribs. The

largest of their canoes, or "piraguas," could contain from 40 to 50

men, and served for purposes of war, but the majority of their canoes

were of small size used in navigating the coast and rivers.



There being no mammals in the island, they knew not the use of flesh

for food, but they had abundance of fish, and they ate besides

whatever creeping or crawling thing they happened to find. These with

the yucca from which they made their casabe or bread, maize, yams, and

other edible roots, constituted their food supply.



There were in Boriquen, as there are among all primitive races,

certain individuals, the embryos of future church functionaries, who

were medicine-man, priest, prophet, and general director of the moral

and intellectual affairs of the benighted masses, but that is all we

know of them.



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