Every one observes some particular superstitious ceremonies in worshipping their idols, which they name cemis.  They believe that there is an immortal being, invisible like Heaven, who had a mother, but no beginning, whom they call Atabei, Jermaoguacar, Apito, and Zuimaco; which are all several names of the Deity.  They also pretend to know whence they came at the first, to give an account of the origin of the sun and moon, of the production of the sea, and what becomes of themselves after death.  They likewise affirm that the dead appear to them upon the roads when any person goes alone, but that when many are together they do not appear.  All these things they derive from the tradition of their ancestors, for they can neither write nor read, and are unable to reckon beyond ten.

1.  In a province of the island named Caanan, there is a mountain called Carita, where there are two caves named Cacibagiagua and Amaiauva, out of the former of which most of the original inhabitants came.  While in those caverns, they watched by night, and one Marocael having the watch, he came one day too late to the door and was taken away by the sun, and he was changed into a stone near the door.  Others going to fish were taken away by the sun and changed into trees called jobi, or mirabolans.

2.  One named Guagugiana ordered another person named Giadruvava to gather for him the herb digo, wherewith they cleanse their bodies when they wash themselves.  Giadruvava was taken away by the sun and changed to a bird called giahuba bagiaci, which sings in the morning and resembles a nightingale.

3.  Guagugiana, angry at the delay, enticed all the women to accompany him, leaving their husbands and children.

4.  Guagugiana and the women came to Matinino, where he left the women, and went to another country called Guanin.  The children thus deserted by their mothers, called out ma! ma! and too! too! as if begging food of the earth, and were transformed into little creatures like dwarfs, called tona; and thus all the men were left without women.

5.  There went other women to Hispaniola, which the natives call Aiti, but the other islanders call them Bouchi.  When Guagugiana went away with the women, he carried with him the wives of the cacique, named Anacacugia; and being followed by a kinsman, he threw him into the sea by a stratagem, and so kept all the caciques wives to himself.  And it is said that ever since there are only women at Matinino.

6.  Guagugiana being full of these blotches which we call the French pox, was put by a woman named Guabonito into a guanara, or bye-place, and there cured.  He was afterwards named Biberoci Guahagiona, and the women gave him abundance of guanine and cibe to wear upon his arms.  The cibe or colecibi are made of a stone like marble, and are worn round the wrists and neck, but the guanine are worn in their ears, and they sound like fine metal.  They say that Guabonito, Albeboreal, Guahagiona, and the father of Albeboreal were the first of these Guaninis.  Guahagiona remained with the father called Hiauna; his son from the father took the name of Hia Guaill Guanin, which signifies the son of Hiauna, and thence the island whether Guahagiona went is called Guanin to this day.