rliest of creatures was the woman, Atabeira or Ataves, who also bore
the other names Mamona, Guacarapita, Iiella, and Guimazoa. Her son was
the supreme ruler of all things, and chiefest of divinities. His names
were Yocauna, Guamaonocon, and Yocahu-vaguaniao-vocoti. He had a brother
called Guaca, and a son Iaiael. The latter rebelled against his father,
and was exiled for four mouths and then killed. The 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 whose mother, Itaba tahuana, had died in bringing them
into the world. Seeing the calabash filled with fish the oldest of the
four, Caracaracol, the Scabby, lifted it down, and all commenced to eat.
While thus occupied, Yocauna suddenly made his appearance, which so
terrified the brothers that they dropped the gourd and broke it into
pieces. From it ran all the waters of the world, and formed the oceans,
lakes, and rivers as they now are.

At this time there were men but no women, and the men did not dare to
venture into the sunlight. Once, as they were out in the rain, they
perceived 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 Casas 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 the banks of the
river Bahoboni in the western part of Haiti, and there erected the first
house, called Camoteia. This was ever after preserved and regarded with
respectful veneration.

Such, in brief, were their national myths. Conspicuously marked in them
we note the sacred number four, the four brothers typifying the cardinal
points, whose mother, the Dawn, dies in giving them birth, just as in
the Algonkin myths. These brothers aid the men in their struggles for
life, and bring to them the four women, the rain-bringing winds. Here,
too, the first of existences is the woman, whose son is at once highest
of divinities and the guide and instructor of their nation. These
peculiarities I have elsewhere shown to be gene