the other hand, it is certain that the Arawaks to this day retain a timid dread of the Caribs, who repay the feeling with contempt.

With regard to these semi-historical tales of war between the tribes it need only be added, as significant when the general condition of the various tribes is considered, that only the Warraus seem to have no tale to tell of bold deeds done against hostile tribes.

CHAPTER XIX.

INDIAN ANTIQUITIES.

The Various Antiquities-Rock-Pictures-Painted Rocks-Two kinds of Engraved Rocks-Shallow Engravings-Deep Engravings-The most recent Rock-Engraving-Comparative Study of the Rock-Engravings of the World-Shell-Mounds or Kitchen-Middens-Probable History of the Shell-Mounds-Stone Implements-Manner of Occurrence in Guiana -Some Typical Examples-Some Peculiar Examples-Standing Stones -Sites of Ancient Villages.

IN 1825 Charles Waterton, in his classic Wanderings in South America,' wrote: 'I could find no monuments or marks of antiquity amongst these Indians; so that, after penetrating to the Rio Branco from the shores of the Western Ocean, had anybody questioned me on this subject, I should have answered, I have seen nothing amongst these Indians which tells me that they have existed here for a century, though, for aught I know to the contrary, they may have been here before the Redemption; but their total want of civilisation has assimilated them to the forests in which they wander. Thus an aged tree falls and moulders into dust, and you cannot tell what was its appearance, its beauties, or its diseases amongst the neighbouring trees; another has shot up in its place, and after nature has had her course, it will make way for a successor in its turn. So it is with the Indian of Guiana: he is now laid low in the dust; he has left no record behind him, either on parchment or on stone or in earthenware, to say what he has done. . . . All that you can say is: The trees where I stand appear lower and smaller than the rest, and from this I conjecture that some Indians may have had a settlement here formerly. Were I

by chance to meet the son of the father who moulders here, he could tell me that his father was famous for slaying tigers and serpents and caymans, and noted in the chase of the tapir and wild boar, but that he remembers little or nothing of his grandfather.'

This statement is only true in so far as it describes the ignorance of the Indian as to his own forerunners and their real history. In the half century which has elapsed since he who wrote these words wandered through the interior of 'Demerara,' many antiquities have been found in the country-enough, indeed, to make it highly probable that many more remain to be discovered. Unfortunately, those already known are not enough in number, and have not been sufficiently studied, to afford much information as to their history and as to the inter-relations of their makers; and, perhaps yet more unfortunately, even the few facts known have been recorded so fleetingly, and chiefly in such scattered papers, that they are hardly generally available. An account of all known antiquities of British Guiana ought therefore to be useful, even if only to those who wish to look further into such matters.

The objects to be discussed may, for the sake of convenience, be classed under five heads: (1) Pictured rocks, (2) shell-mounds, (3) stone implements, (4) standing stones, (5) sites of ancient villages. Before dealing with each of these in turn, it may be as well to state that in no one case is it as yet possible to assign any one of these traces of past human life with any certainty to the tribe which produced them; and only in one case is it possible to point to the producers with even some degree of probability. With regard to the pictured rocks and the shell-mounds, good reason will be shown for supposing that the former are the products of a forgotten art of some of the tribes now living in this part of the world; and yet stronger reason for supposing that the latter are the work of the True Caribs.

The pictured rocks, which are certainly the most striking and mysterious of the antiquities of Guiana, are-and this has apparently never yet been pointed out-not all of one kind. In all cases various figures are rudely depicted on larger or smaller surfaces of rocks. Sometimes these figures are painted, though such cases are few and, as will be shown, of little moment; more generally they are graven on the rock, and these alone are of great importance. Rock sculptures may, again, be distinguished into two kinds, differing in the depth of incision, the apparent mode of execution, and, most important of all, the character of the figures represented.

Painted rocks in British Guiana are mentioned by Mr. C. Barrington Brown, well known as a traveller in the colony. He says, for instance, that in coming down past Amailah fall (in the same district and range as the Kaieteur), on the Cooriebrong river, he passed ‘a large white sandstone rock ornamented with figures in red paint.' When in the Pacaraima mountains, on the Brazilian frontier, I heard of the existence of similar paintings in that neighbourhood, but was unable to find them. Mr. Wallace, in his account of his Travels on the Amazons,' mentions the occurrence of similar drawings in more than one place near the Amazons; and from these and other accounts it seems probable that they occur in various parts of South America. If, as seems likely, these figures are painted with either of the red pigments which the Indians use so largely to paint their own bodies as well as their weapons and other implements, or, as is also possible, with some sort of red earth, they must be modern, the work of Indians of the present day; for these red pigments would not long withstand the effects of the weather, especially where, as in the case quoted from Mr. Brown, the drawings are on such an unenduring substance as sandstone. Some further account of these

1 See ante, p. 316.

paintings is, however, much to be desired; for, though they are probably modern, it would be very interesting to know whether the designs resemble those depicted on the engraved rocks, or are of the kind which the Indian at the present time ornaments both his own skin and his household utensils

and paddles. It may be mentioned that in the Christy collection there is a stone celt from British Guiana on which are painted lines very closely resembling in character those which the Indian commonly paints on his own body.

The engraved rocks, on the contrary, must be of some antiquity; that is to say, they must certainly date from a time