FEWKEs] RELIGION 73 



a cav'e, which they called Giovovava or Jovobaba and regarded with 

 great reverence as the place of human orioin. It formerly contained 

 two small idols of stone, human tioures with their hands bound, called 

 Boinaiel (Sun) and Maroio (Moon), each about a yard long. It was 

 popularlj' believed that these idols appeared at times to sweat. The 

 natives held them in great respect and, according to Pane, made them 

 large oB'erings and resorted to them to pray for rain for the crops. 

 This cave was situated in the land of a cacique named Mauci Tiuvel. 



There was a tradition that the dead went to a place called CIoail)ai, 

 in a district of the island called Soraia, and that their spirits, <ip'u(, 

 I'emained there in daytime, but delighted to come forth during the 

 niglit and appear to the living in the forms of men and women. Con- 

 sequently, an Indian would seldom venture out alone in the dark and 

 then only with fear." It was said that a native once met one of these 

 spirits, in consequence of which he disappeared and found himself 

 attached to a tree. 



The aboriginal Porto Kican tradition of the creation of women was 

 that they were created for men from four eagle-like beings possessed of 

 feet and hands. A bird similar to a woodpecker {pifucu)^ believing 

 that these beings were wood, pecked at their privates and thus formed 

 women. 



According to Gomara the Indians of Haiti preserved as a relic a 

 calabash, from which, as thejr believed, came the sea and all its tishes. 

 A fable of how the sun turned certain fishermen into trees (joho) 

 appears in several legends of these Indians. 



Fray Ramon Pane, who was one of the few priests who could sp(>ak 

 the Tainan language of ancient Haiti, has preserved a number of the 

 traditions of the natives of that island. Some of these were published 

 in the Life of Columbus, ascribed to his son, the authenticity of which 

 Harrisse questions. Pane's record of the traditions and religions of the 

 prehistoric- people of Haiti, however, is looked upon as worthy of cre- 

 dence. While the author regrets that he has not here the space to 

 give a full or satisfactor}^ resume of this work, he has introduced a 

 few significant legends i-ecorded by this priest. The story of how the 

 sea was made is especially interesting. 



There was once a man named Yaya or Giaia, whose son, called 

 Yavael or Giaiel (Earth),* sought to kill his father and was banished 

 to a place whei-e he remained four months, after which his father 

 killed him, and put him into a calabash, which he hung to the roof 

 of his cabin, where it remained a long time. Yaya went one day 

 to see his son's bones, and, having taken down the calabash and opened 

 it, found instead a uiultitudc of fishes, great and small, into which 

 the bones had been changed. Yaya and his wife decided to eat these 



fi The spiritualism so common among the Giharos is a survival of this old belief recorded by Pane. 

 ''The termination el means son; Giaiel, son of Giaia. 



