fEWKES] RELIGION 57 



Guamoretus the}' found in the roof a zeini., called Corocnotum (Coro- 

 cose), that was made of cotton. Pei'sons having' two crowns in their 

 hair '^-ere supposed to be related to this zi'im', who liad a fondness for 

 lying with women. 



The zends known as Baidrama, or twins, and called also Bugid y Aiba 

 was a war god. Fray Ramon Pane says that the Indians believed 

 that their strength could be augmented b}' this being, and that when 

 they smoked in honor of this god their arms increased in size and their 

 eyesight was restored. They could increase their strength also In' 

 bathing the body in the juice of the yucca {giuca). 



ZEJIIS OF WOOD 



Las Casas says that the Indians of Haiti had certain statues made of 

 wood, which Columbus described in a letter to the Catholic monarchs, 

 Ferdinand and Isabella, and adds that they placed in them bones of 

 relatives and gave them the names of the persons whose bones were 

 inclosed. Some of these images were hollow, and when the caciques 

 consulted the idols priests hidden within responded. It happened on 

 one occasion that a Spaniard, who had heard the responses issuing 

 from the image, kicked it over, thus revealing the secret means b}' 

 which it was made to appear to speak. There was in one corner of 

 the room containing the idol a space in wiiicli the person who really 

 spoke was hidden behind shrubbery, his replies to the priest question- 

 ing the idol being borne through a tube to the statue. 



The idols are described by Pane, whose account is quoted by Las 

 Casas: '"The natives had certain statues or idols to which they gave 

 the name cdini, which they believed gave water, wind, and sun wiien 

 needed. These idols were made of stone and wood." 



Fray Ramon Pane wiites as follows regarding wooden znmin: 



When a native was pasi^ing l)y a tree which was moved more than others by the 

 wind, the Indian in fear calls out, '■'Whn are you'.'" The tree responds, "Call 

 here a Bohii or priest and I will tell you who I am." When the priest or sorcerer 

 had come to the tree ami had seated himself liefore it he performed certain prescribed 

 ceremonies," and rising recounted the titles and honors of the principal chiefs of the 

 island, asked of the tree, ''What are you doing here'? What do you wish of me'? 

 Why have you asked to have me called? Tell me if you wish me to cut you down 

 and if you wish to go 'with me, how 1 shall carry you, whether I shall make you a 

 house and a plantation and perform ceremonies for a year." The tree answered 

 these questions, and the man cut it down and made of it a statue or idol of sinister 

 look, for ordinarily they make the faces of the idols in the forms of old monkeys. 



He made a house and plantation, and each year performed certain ceremonies and 

 consulted it as an oracle, asking as he retired from its presence things good and bad, 

 or prophecies of what would happen in the future. He announced the replies to the 

 common people. 



a In Churchill's Voyages, page 574, where Ramon Pane is somewhat differently translated, these 

 ceremonies are called coriioba, ' ' which co(/ioba is to pray to it, to please it, to ask and know of the said 

 cefiii what good or evil is to happen, and to Ijcg wealth of it.'' Cogioba is a word for prayer, and as 

 smoking tobacco is practically among prinntive Americans a form of prayer, cotnoba is the term for 

 smoke and tobacco. 



