#25 — The following Taino myth was recorded on the island of Haiti, or Hispaniola, by Fray Ramon Pane, a poor anchorite of the order of St. Jerome, at the bidding of Columbus, who ordered him to set down all their language and antiquities, because of his familiarity with their language. (From – “LATIN AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY”, by Hartley Burr Alexander., pp. 28-29):
“The earliest Indians appeared, according to the legend, from two caverns of a certain mountain of Hispaniola — ‘moat of the people that first inhabited the island came out of Cacibagiagua,’ while the others emerged from Amaiauva (it is altogether likely that the two caves represent two races or tribal stocks).
“Before the people came forth, a watchman, Marocael, guarded the entrances by night; but, once delaying his return into the caves until after dawn, the sun transformed him into a stone;
while others, going a-fishing, were also caught by the sun and were changed into trees.
As for the sun and moon, they, too, came from a certain grotto, called Giovava, to which, says Fray Ramon, the Indians paid great veneration, having it all painted ‘without any figure, but with leaves and the like’; and keeping in it two stone ‘zemis’ which looked ‘as if they sweated’; to these, they went when they wanted rain.”
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