I, Father Roman, a poor anchorite of the order of St Jerome, by command of
the most illustrious lord admiral, viceroy and governor-general of the
islands and continent of the Indies, do here relate all that I could hear
and learn concerning the religious opinions and idolatry of the Indians,
and of the ceremonies they employ in the worship of their gods.
Every one observes some particular superstitious ceremonies in worshipping
their idols, which they name cemis. They believe that there is an
immortal being, invisible like Heaven, who had a mother, but no beginning,
whom they call Atabei, Jermaoguacar, Apito, and Zuimaco; which are all
several names of the Deity. 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. Guahagiona remained with the
father called Hiauna; his son from the father took the name of Hia Guaill
Guanin, which signifies the son of Hiauna, and thence the island whether
Guahagiona went is called Guanin to this day.
7. The men who had been left without women were anxious to procure some,
and one day saw the shape of human beings sliding down the trees, whom
they could not catch. But by employing four men who had rough hands from a
disease like the itch, these four strange beings were caught.
8. Finding those beings wanted the parts of women, they caught certain
birds named turiri cahuvaial, resembling woodpeckers, and by their means
fashioned them to their purpose.
9. There was once a man named Giaia, who had a son named Giaiael, which
signifies the son of Giaia; and who, intending to kill his father was
banished and afterwards killed by his father, and his bones hung up in a
calabash. Afterwards going to examine the bones, he found them all changed
into a vast number of great and small fishes.
10. There were four brothers, the sons of a woman named Itiba Tahuvava,
all born at one birth, for the woman dying in labour they cut her open.
The first they cut out was named Diminan, and was a caracaracol, or
afflicted with a disease like the itch, the others had no names. One day
while Giaia was at his conichi or lands, these brothers came to his house
and took down the calabash to eat the fish; but not hanging it up properly,
there ran out so much water as drowned the whole country, and with it
great quantities of fish: And in this manner they believe the sea had its
original.
11. After a long story of a live tortoise being cut out from the shoulder
of Diminan Caracaracol, quite away from the purpose, F. Roman proceeds to
say that the sun and moon came out of a grotto called Giovovava, in the
country of a cacique named Maucia Tiuvel. This grotto is much venerated,
and is all painted over with the representation of leaves and other things.
It contained two cemis made of stone, about a quarter of a yard long,
having their hands bound, and which looked as if they sweated.
