CHAPTER II. How the men were divided from the women. It came to pass that one man whose name was Guagugiona* said to another whose name was Giadruuaua,† that he should go to gather an herb called digo with which they cleanse the body when they go to wash themselves. He went before day, (but) the sun seized him on the way and he became a bird which sings in the morning like the nightingale and is called Giahuba Bagiael. Guagugiona seeing that he whom he had sent to gather the digo did not return resolved to go out of the cave Cacibagiagua. CHAPTER III. That Guagugiona resolved to go away in anger, seeing that those whom he had sent to gather the digo for washing themselves did not return; and he said to the women "Leave your husbands and let us go into other lands and we will carry off enough jewels. Leave your sons and we will carry only the plants with us and then we will return for them." CHAPTER IV. Guagugiona set forth with all the women and went off in search of other lands, and came to Matinino where he left the women; and he went away into another region called Guanin and they had left the little children near a brook. Then when hunger began to trouble them, it is related, that they wailed and called upon their mothers who had gone off; and the fathers were not able to give help to the children calling in hunger for their mothers, saying "mama" as if to speak, but really asking for the breast. § And wailing in this fashion and asking for the breast, saying "too, too,"|| as one who asks for something with great longing, and very urgently, they were changed into little animals, *Vaguoniona in Peter Martyr. Bachiller y Morales, thinks the proper form is Guagoniona. See his discussion of this and the two following names, Cuba Primitiva, 275†This name is omitted in Peter Martyr. Usually identified with Martinique. This passage is convincing evidence that the Amazon legends in America were indigenous and not transmitted there or developed by the misapprehensions of the first discoverers. Ehrenreich is convinced that these legends are indigenous although he does not refer to this evidence. See his Mythen und Legenden, 65. Columbus early and frequently heard of the island of Matinino which was inhabited only by women. §La tetta, Apparently the Italian text used by the translator of the English version of the Historie read "la terra" in this passage for it is there rendered "to beg of the earth"! Toa, toa, in Peter Martyr. I write this are of the island Española; because of the other islands I know nothing never having seen them. Likewise they know from what direction they came and whence the sun had his origin and the moon and how the sea was made and whither the dead go. And they believe that the dead appear on the roadways when one goes alone, wherefore when many go together they do not appear to them. All this those who have gone before have made them believe, because these people know not how to read or to count beyond ten. CHAPTER I. From what direction the Indians have come and in what manner. Española has a province called Caanau* in which there is a mountain which is called Cantat where there are two caves, the one named Cacibagiagua and the other Amaiuua. From Cacibagiagua came forth the larger part of the people who settled in the island. When people were in these caves watch was kept by night and the care of this was given to one whose name was Marocael; § and him, because one day he delayed to come back to the door, the sun carried off. And when it was seen that the sun had carried him off they closed the door; and so he was changed into stone near the door. Next they say that others going off to fish were taken by the sun and they became trees, called by them Iobi, and otherwise they are called mirabolans. The reason why Marocael kept watch and stood guard was to watch in what direction he wished to send or to divide the people, and it seems that he delayed to his own greater hurt. whose dwelling place and habitation is heaven, and they named him Yocahu Vagua Maorocoti. With this true and catholic knowledge of the true God they mingled these errors to wit, that God had a mother and her brother Guaca and others of this sort." Docs. Ined. LXVI. 434. *Caunana in Peter Martyr. †Cauta in Peter Martyr, and the correct form. Cazibaxagua and Amaiauna in Peter Martyr who says in Decade vii, chap 8, that in the ancestral lore of the Haytians the island was viewed as a great monster of the female sex and that the great cave of Guaccaiarima was her organs of generation-Cf. Peschel, Zeitalter der Entdeckungen, 147 and Ehrenreich, Die Mythen und Legenden der Südamerikanischen Urvölker, 33. §Machochael in Peter Martyr. This is apparently the correct form. Cf. Bachiller y Morales, 315. Iobo (Jobo, or hobo). The name of this tree and fruit is still in use in Santo Domingo, Bachiller y Morales, 300. CHAPTER II. How the men were divided from the women. It came to pass that one man whose name was Guagugiona* said to another whose name was Giadruuaua,† that he should go to gather an herb called digo with which they cleanse the body when they go to wash themselves. He went before day, (but) the sun seized him on the way and he became a bird which sings in the morning like the nightingale and is called Giahuba Bagiael. Guagugiona seeing that he whom he had sent to gather the digo did not return resolved to go out of the cave Cacibagiagua. CHAPTER III. That Guagugiona resolved to go away in anger, seeing that those whom he had sent to gather the digo for washing themselves did not return; and he said to the women "Leave your husbands and let us go into other lands and we will carry off enough jewels. Leave your sons and we will carry only the plants with us and then we will return for them." CHAPTER IV. Guagugiona set forth with all the women and went off in search of other lands, and came to Matinino where he left the women; and he went away into another region called Guanin and they had left the little children near a brook. Then when hunger began to trouble them, it is related, that they wailed and called upon their mothers who had gone off; and the fathers were not able to give help to the children calling in hunger for their mothers, saying "mama" as if to speak, but really asking for the breast. § And wailing in this fashion and asking for the breast, saying "too, too," as one who asks for something with great longing, and very urgently, they were changed into little animals, *Vaguoniona in Peter Martyr. Bachiller y Morales, thinks the proper form is Guagoniona. See his discussion of this and the two following names, Cuba Primitiva, 275†This name is omitted in Peter Martyr. Usually identified with Martinique. This passage is convincing evidence that the Amazon legends in America were indigenous and not transmitted there or developed by the misapprehensions of the first discoverers. Ehrenreich is convinced that these legends are indigenous although he does not refer to this evidence. See his Mythen und Legenden, 65. Columbus early and frequently heard of the island of Matinino which was inhabited only by women. §La tetta, Apparently the Italian text used by the translator of the English version of the Historie read "la terra" in this passage for it is there rendered "to beg of the earth"! Toa, toa, in Peter Martyr. after the fashion of dwarfs* (frogs) which are called Tonat because of their asking for the breast, and that in this way all the men were left without women. CHAPTER V. And later on another occasion women went there from the said Island Española, which formerly was called Aiti, and is so called by its inhabitants; and these and other islands they called Bouhi. And because they have no writing nor letters they cannot give a good account of what they have learned from their forbears; and therefore they do not agree in what they say, nor can what they relate be recorded in an orderly fashion. When Guahagiona went away, he that carried away all the women, he likewise took with him the women of his Cacique whose name was Anacacugia, deceiving him as he deceived the others; and, moreover, a brother-in-law of Guahagiona Anacacuia, § who went off with him went on the sea; and Guahagiona said to his brother-in-law, being in the canoe, see what a fine cobo is there in the water and this cobo is the sea snail, and him peering into the water to see the cobo Guahagiona his brother-in-law seized by the feet and cast into the sea; and so he took all the women for himself, and he left those of Matinino (i. e. at Matinino) where it is reported there are no people but women to-day. And he went off to another island which is called Guanin and it received this name on account of what he took away from it when he went away. CHAPTER VI. That Guahagiona returned to Canta, (Cauta) mentioned above, whence he had taken the women. They say that being in the land whence he had gone Guahagiona saw that he had left in the sea one woman, and that he was greatly pleased with her and straightway sought out many washes (or washing places) to wash himself being full of those sores which we call the French disease. She then put him in a Guanara *Nane. The correct reading is rane, "frogs," as appears in Peter Martyr and from the context. +Ulloa's misreading rane as nane may have misled him in the latter part of the sentence. The version in Peter Martyr makes much better sense. Bachiller y Morales, questions the existence of such a word as Tona, p. 343. Brasseur de Bourbourg conjectured that Toa may have meant "frog" as well as "breast." Apparently in the sense of homes or dwelling places. Buhi or Bohio ordinarily means cabin. Perhaps it should be §The punctuation follows the text of the original. Guahagiona, Anacacuia, making the second name that of the brother-in-law. ||Guanin means an inferior kind of gold. That Ramon Pane, before 1496, should have recorded this legend of the culture hero Guahagiona (Guagugiona, Vaguoniona) is conclusive evidence that Syphilis had existed in the West Indies long before the arrival of the Spaniards-Cf. Iwan Bloch Der Ursprung der Syphilis, 202-205. The name mal Francese is no doubt Ulloa's translation of las bubas, the Spanish name of the disease. Then which means a place apart; and so he was healed of these sores. she asked permission of him to go on her way and he gave it to her. This woman was named Guabonito; and Guahagiona changed his name and thenceforward he was called Biberoci Guahagiona. And the woman Guabonito gave Biberoci Guahagiona many guanins* and many cibe↑ to wear tied on his arms. Because in those countries colecibit are of stones like marble and they wear them tied on the arms and on the neck and the guanins they wear in the ears making holes when they are children; and they are of metal as it were of a florin. And the beginnings (the originators) of these guanins they say were Guabonito, Albeborael, Guahagiona, and the father of Albeborael. Guahagiona remained in the land with his father whose name was Hiauna, his grandson (figliuolo) on his father's side (i. e. Guahagiona's son) was named Hia Guaili Guanin which means grandson of Hiauna; and thence thereafter he was called Guanin and is so called to-day. And since they have no letters nor writings they cannot relate well such fables nor can I write them well. Wherefore I believe I shall put down first what should be last and last what should be first. But all that I write is related by them as I write it and so I set it forth as I have understood it from the people of the country. CHAPTER VII. How there were women again in the island of Aiti which is now called Española. They say that one day the men went off to bathe and being in the water, it rained heavily, and that they were very desirous of having women, and that oftentimes when it rained, they had gone to search for the traces of their women nor had been able to find any news of them, but that on that day while bathing, they say, they saw fall down from some trees and hiding in the branches a certain kind of persons that were not men nor women nor had the natural parts of the male or female. They went to take them but they fled away as if they had been eagles, § (eels) wherefore they called two or three men by the order of their cacique, since they were not able to take them for him in order they they might watch to see how many there were and that they might seek out for each one a man who was Caracaracol because they have their hands rough, and that so they held (could hold) them tightly. They told the Cacique that there were four, and so they brought four men who were Caracaracoli. This Caracaracol is a disease like scab which makes the body very rough. After they had caught them they took counsel *Jewels of guanin. † Beads. Strings of beads. Bachiller y Morales, 251. §Aquile. Read anguille, "eels." A mistake of the translator Ulloa. Peter Martyr has anguillae which is undoubtedly the right word. |
