74 THE ABORIGINES OF PORTO RICO [eth. ann. 25 



lishes, but one day, when Yaya had gone to his farm, there came to 

 his house the four sons of Itaba-Yanuba (Itiba Tahuvaca), who died 

 at their birth. The first-born was called Caracol, "shell;'' the 

 others had no names. These four sons of Itiba-Tahuvava, having 

 examined the calabash, resolved to eat the fishes. As they set about 

 it they were suddenly surprised by the return of Yaj^a and attempted 

 to hang up the calabash again, but it fell to the earth and was broken. 

 All the water poured out, covering the earth and forming the sea, 

 carrying with it the fishes, which became its inhabitants. Benzoni 

 also speaks of the calabash, out of which had come the sea with all 

 the fishes, that was kept as a relic. This tradition, which has some- 

 times been regarded as a story of the deluge, is one of those widely 

 spread accounts of the water covering all the earth found among most 

 of the aboriginal tribes of America. The calabash or gourd was 

 preserved by the natives as a ceremonial object to which great sacred- 

 ness was attached. 



TKADITIOXS OB' ORKilN 



According to Ramon Pane the Indians related that there was in one 

 of the provinces of Haiti, called Caanan, a mountain, Canta, in which 

 were two caves, known as Caci-Bagiagua and Amaiauva. The natives 

 of the island believed that their ancestors emerged from the first of 

 these caves, but that other people still remained in the other cavern, 

 which was guarded by ]\larocael. The guardian was once surprised 

 by the closing of the entrance of the cave by the sun and turned into 

 a stone. Another legend tells how certain men who went fishing were 

 turned into trees, called ;V>Zi«,y, by the shining of the sun upon them. 



"The first people." says Charlevoix", who apparently drew his 

 information from Ramon Pane,* Peter Martyr, and others, "are said 

 to have come from two caves in the island of Haiti, and the sun, irri- 

 tated at their exit from the earth, changed the guardians of these cav- 

 erns to stone, and metamorphosed the people who escaped from their 

 prisons into trees and into all kinds of animals. This thoroughly 

 aboriginal story, which in some variants goes on to tell of the loss of 

 the women and how their children were turned into frogs, crying faa. 

 toa^ ("frog, frog"),'' occurs in several early folk tales. Another tra- 

 dition says that the sun and the moon came to light the world from 

 a grotto in the same island, and that the people made pilgrimages to 

 this grotto, whose walls were ornamented with paintings, and whose 

 entrance was guarded hy demons, for whom one had to perform cer- 

 tain ceremonies before they would allow him to pass. 



The beings called Caeai'acol {\Anvix\ of caracol) appear in many stories 

 as monster gods, with scabby or rough skins, but the spelling of their 



"Histoirede risle Espagnole ou de S. Domingue, i, 38, Paris. 1730. 



'• Pane says the children were changed into tunn, or little creatures like dwarfs. 



<• Tun means also "breast," and possibly the children were clamoring for milk or for their mothers. 



