The Souls Of The Living They Name Goeiz,
Those Of The Dead Opia.
14. There is a set of men among them called Bohutis, who use many juggling
tricks, pretend to talk with the dead and to know all the actions and
secrets of the living, whom they cure when sick.
All their superstitions
and fables are contained in old songs which these Bohutis rehearse, and
which direct them in all things as the Moors are by the Coran. When they
sing these songs they play on an instrument named Maiohaven, like a
calabash with a long neck, made of wood, strong, hollow, and thin, which
makes so loud a noise as to be heard at the distance of a league and a
half.
15. Almost every person in Hispaniola has abundance of cemis; some have
their fathers, mothers, and predecessors and kindred, some in stone and
others in wood, some that speak, some that eat, some that cause things to
grow, others that bring rain, and others that give winds. When any one is
sick, the Buhuitihu is brought, who must be dieted exactly in the same
manner with the sick man. That is both snuff up a certain powder named
cobaba by the nose, which intoxicates them and makes them speak
incoherently, which they say is talking with the cemis, who tell them the
cause of the sickness.
16. When the Buhuitihu goes to visit a sick person, he smears his face
with soot or powdered charcoal. He wraps up some small bones and a bit of
flesh, which he conceals in his mouth. The sick man is purged with cohaba.
The doctor sits down in the house, after turning out all children and
others, so that only one or two remain with him and the sick person, who
must all remain silent. After many mumming tricks[2], the Buhuitihu lights
a torch and begins a mystic song. He then turns the sick man twice about,
pinches his thighs and legs, descending by degrees to the feet, and draws
hard as if pulling something away; then going to the door he says, "begone
to the sea or the mountains, or whither thou wilt," and giving a blast as
if he blew something away, turns round clapping his hands together, which
tremble as if with cold, and shuts his mouth. After this he blows on his
hands as if warming them, then draws in his breath as if sucking something,
and sucks the sick mans neck, stomach, shoulders, jaws, breast, belly, and
other parts of his body. This done he coughs and makes wry faces as if he
had swallowed something very bitter, and pulls from his mouth what he had
before concealed there, stone, flesh, bone, or whatever that may have been.
If any thing eatable, he alleges that the sick man had eaten this which
had occasioned his disorder, pretending, it had been put in by the cemi
because he had not been sufficiently devout, and that he must build a
temple to the cemi, or give him some offering.
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