They also pretend to know whence they came at
the first, to give an account of the origin of the sun and moon, of the
production of the sea, and what becomes of themselves after death. They
likewise affirm that the dead appear to them upon the roads when any
person goes alone, but that when many are together they do not appear. All
these things they derive from the tradition of their ancestors, for they
can neither write nor read, and are unable to reckon beyond ten.
1. In a province of the island named Caanan, there is a mountain called
Carita, where there are two caves named Cacibagiagua and Amaiauva, out of
the former of which most of the original inhabitants came. While in those
caverns, they watched by night, and one Marocael having the watch, he came
one day too late to the door and was taken away by the sun, and he was
changed into a stone near the door. Others going to fish were taken away
by the sun and changed into trees called jobi, or mirabolans.
2. One named Guagugiana ordered another person named Giadruvava to gather
for him the herb digo, wherewith they cleanse their bodies when they wash
themselves. Giadruvava was taken away by the sun and changed to a bird
called giahuba bagiaci, which sings in the morning and resembles a
nightingale.
3. Guagugiana, angry at the delay, enticed all the women to accompany him,
leaving their husbands and children.
4. Guagugiana and the women came to Matinino, where he left the women, and
went to another country called Guanin. The children thus deserted by their
mothers, called out ma! ma! and too! too! as if begging food of the earth,
and were transformed into little creatures like dwarfs, called tona; and
thus all the men were left without women.
5. There went other women to Hispaniola, which the natives call Aiti, but
the other islanders call them Bouchi. When Guagugiana went away with the
women, he carried with him the wives of the cacique, named Anacacugia; and
being followed by a kinsman, he threw him into the sea by a stratagem, and
so kept all the caciques wives to himself. And it is said that ever since
there are only women at Matinino.
6. Guagugiana being full of these blotches which we call the French pox,
was put by a woman named Guabonito into a guanara, or bye-place, and there
cured. He was afterwards named Biberoci Guahagiona, and the women gave him
abundance of guanine and cibe to wear upon his arms. The cibe or colecibi
are made of a stone like marble, and are worn round the wrists and neck,
but the guanine are worn in their ears, and they sound like fine metal.
They say that Guabonito, Albeboreal, Guahagiona, and the father of
Albeboreal were the first of these Guaninis.
