Cabrera found at Cuba, says Humboldt, a variation of the story respecting the first inebriation of Noah.  A wild grape grew in all the West India Islands.  The natives of Cuba preserved also the tradition of a great terrestrial disturbance, in which water played the chief part.  This was probably held by the Haytians also, for we find it again among the Caribs beyond, especially in South America.  But Cabrera, mounting with the waters of the Deluge, was not content till he had found in Cuba the ark, the raven and dove, the uncovering of Noah, and his curse; in fact, the Indians were descended from this unfortunate son whom Noah’s malediction reduced to nudity, but the Spaniards, descending from another son, inherited his clothes.  “Why do you call me a dog?” said an old Indian of seventy years to Cabrera, who had been insulting him.  “Did we not both come out of the same large ship that saved us from the waters?"[M]

[Footnote M:  Notes on Cuba, containing an Account of its Discovery and Early History.  By Dr. Wurdemann. 1844.]

It is certain that the Haytians believed in continued existence after death, and pointed, as all men do, to the sky, when talking of that subject.  They held, indefinitely, that there was some overruling Spirit; but they believed also in malignant influences which it was advisable to propitiate.  Their worship was connected with the caverns of the island, those mysterious formations beneath which the strange sounds were heard.  The walls of these caverns were covered with pictured distortions, half man, half animal, which yielded to the priests, or butios, interpretations according to the light and shadow.  Some of these vaults are lighted through a natural fissure in the roof, and the worship or augury commenced at the moment the sun struck through it.  There were movable idols, called Zemes, which represented inferior deities.  The Catholic writers call them messengers and mediators, having their own saints in mind.  But their forms were sometimes merely animal, a toad, a tortoise with a sun upon its back, and upon each side a star with the moon in her first change; another was a monstrous figure in basalt, representing a head surmounting a female bosom, diminishing to a ball; another was a human figure made from a gypseous stalactite.[N]

[Footnote N:  The savages of Martinique kept in their caverns idols made of cotton, in the form of a man, with shining black seeds of the soap-berry (Sapindus) for eyes, and a cotton helmet.  These were the original deities of the island.  It cannot now be decided whether the cotton thus worshipped was long-staple or upland; but the tendency of the savage mind to make a fetich of its chief thing appears to be universal.]

The cacique took precedence of the butios, in theory, at least, and designated the days for public worship.  He led the procession of men and women festively adorned, beating on a drum, to the cavern where the priests awaited them.  Presents were offered, and old dances and songs repeated in honor of the Zemes, and of departed caciques.  Then the priests broke cakes and distributed the pieces to the heads of families, who carefully kept them till the next festival as amulets and preservatives against disease.