IN ITS LINGUISTIC AND ETHNOLOGICAL RELATIONS. 



443 



man. 45 On reaching Haiti brother Pane was first sent among the natives of the small province called Macorix de 

 abajo, which had a language peculiar to itself, but ho was subsequently transferred to tho province of Guarinoex on 

 the southeastern part of tho island where the lengua universal prevailed. He remained there two years, and at the 

 request of Columbus collected and wrote down the legends and beliefs of the natives. 



He is not a model authority. In the first place, being a Catalan he did not write Spanish correctly ; he was very 

 imperfectly acquainted witli the native tongue ; lie wrote hastily, and had not enough paper to write in full; he is 

 not sure that he commences their legends at the right end. Moreover his manuscript is lost, and the only means we 

 have of knowing anything about it is by a very incorrectly printed Italian version, printed in 1571, and two early 

 synopses, one in Latin in tho Decades of Peter Martyr, the other in Italian, by Messer Zuane de Strozi of Forrara, 

 which has been quito recently published for the first time.' 10 liy comparing these we can arrive at tho meaning of 

 Brother Pane with considerable accuracy. 



His work contains fragments of two distinct cycles of legends, the one describing the history of the gods, the 

 other the history of the human race. 



Earliest of creatures was the woman, Atabeira or Ataves, who also bore the other names Mami'ma, Guacaraptta, 

 Iiella, and Guimazoa. Her son was tho supremo ruler of all things, and chiofost of divinities. His names were 

 Yocaiina, Guamariuooon, and Yocahu-vaguaniao-vocoti. Ho had a brother called Guaca, and a son Iaiacl. The latter 

 rebelled against his father, and was exiled for four months and then killed. Tho legend goes on to relate that his 

 bones were placed in a- calabash and hung up in his father's house. Here they changed into fishes, and the calabash 

 filled with water. One day four brothers passed that way, who had all been born at one time, and whoso mother, 

 Itaba tahuana, had died in bringing them into the world. Seeing the calabash Idled with fish the oldest of the four, 

 Caracaracol, tho Scabby, lifted it down, and all commenced to oat. While thus occupied, Yocaiina suddenly made his 

 appearance, which so terrified tho brothers that they dropped the gourd and broke it into pieces. Prom it ran all the 

 waters of the world, and formed the oceans, lakes, and rivers as they now arc. 



At this time there were men but no women, and the men did not dare to venture into the sunlight. Once, as 

 they wore out iu the rain, they peroeived four creatures, swift as eagles and slippery as eels. The men called to their 

 aid Caracaracol and his brothers, who caught these creatures and transformed them into women. In time, these 

 became the mothers of mankind. 



The earliest natives of Haiti came under the leadership of the hero-god, Vaguoniona, a name applied by Las 

 Oasas to Yocahu, from an island to the south called in the legend Matinino, which all the authors identify, I know 

 not why, with Martinique. They landed first on tho banks of the river Bahoboni in the western part of Haiti, and 

 there erected tho first house, called ( lamotela. This was ever after preserved and regarded with respectful veneration. 



Such, in brief, wcro their national myths. Conspicuously marked in them wo note the sacred number four, the 

 four brothers typifying tho cardinal points, whoso mother, tho Dawn, dies in giving them birth, just as in tho Algoiikin 

 myths. These brothers aid tho men in their struggles for life, and bring to them the four women, tho rain-bringing 

 winds. Here, too, the first of existences is tho woman, wdiose son is at once highest of divinities and the guide and in- 

 structor of their nation. Those peculiarities I have elsewhere shown to bo general throughout tho religions of America. 47 



Tho myth of tho thunder storm also appears among thom in its triplicate nature so common to the American 

 mind. God of the storm was Guabancex, whose statue was mado of stones. When angry he sent before him as messen- 

 ger, Guatauva, to gather the winds, and accompanied by Coatrischie, who collected tho rain-clouds in tho valleys of tho 

 mountains, lie swept down upon tho plain, surrounded by tho awful paraphernalia of tho thunder storm." 18 



<i LasCasas knew Pane personally, and gives his name correctly (not Soman, as all the printed authorities havelt). He described htm an " hombre simple 

 y de buena lntenclon;" "fuese Catalan de naolon y no habla del todo Men nuestra lengua Oastellana." Itamon came to Haiti four or Ave years before Las Oasas, 

 and the latter speaks of him in a disparaging tone, "EsteFrayBamon esoudrlno lo que pud6, segun lo que alcanzo de las lenguasque fueron tres.las que 

 habla enosta ysla; pero no supo Slno la una de una cblea provincla, que arriba dejimos Uamarse Maearia de abajo, y aquella no perfectamente. (HUtorta 

 Apotoaetioa, M83. cap. 120, see also cap. 1(52). This statemant is not quite true, as according to LasCasas' own admission Pane dwelt two years in the province 

 of Guarinoex, where the lengua universal was spoken, ami there, collected these traditions. 



*i Pane's aocount was first published In the HUtoriedel Trenando Colombo, Venetla, 1571, from which It has recently been translated and published with 

 notes by Brasseur de Bourbourg, Paris, 1864. The version of Zuane de Strozi Is in the Appendix to Harrissc's Bibliotheoa l'rimordui Americana, p. 474. 

 4' Theimjlhs of 'the New World, (New York, 1868). 

 ™ See the work last quoted, p. 156, for a number of similar myths of the trinity of the storm. 



