The Spaniards lived for some time in Hispaniola without suspecting that the islanders worshipped anything else than the stars, or that they had any kind of religion; I have indeed several times reported that these islanders only adored the visible stars and the heavens.  But after mingling with them for some years, and the languages becoming mutually intelligible, many of the Spaniards began to notice among them divers ceremonies and rites.  Brother Roman,[19] a hermit, who went, by order of Columbus, amongst the caciques to instruct them in the principles of Christianity, has written a book in the Spanish language on the religious rites of the islanders.  I undertake to review this work, leaving out some questions of small importance.  I now offer it to you as follows: 

It is known that the idols to whom the islanders pay public worship represent goblins which appear to them in the darkness, leading them into foolish errors; for they make images, in the forms of seated figures, out of plaited cotton, tightly stuffed inside, to represent these nocturnal goblins and which resemble those our artists paint upon walls.

[Note 19:  Roman Pane was a Jeronymite friar who, as here stated, wrote by order of Columbus.  His work was in twenty-six chapters covering eighteen pages, and was inserted at the end of the sixty-first chapter of the Storia of Fernando Columbus.  The original Spanish MS. is lost, the text being known in an Italian translation published in Venice in 1571.  Brasseur de Bourbourg published a French translation in his work on Yucatan, Relation des Choses de Yucatan de Diego Landa.  Paris, 1864.]

I have sent you four of these images, and you have been able to examine them and verify their resemblance to the goblins.  You will also be able to describe them to the most serene King, your uncle, better than I could do in writing.  The natives call these images zemes.  When they are about to go into battle, they tie small images representing little demons upon their foreheads, for which reason these figures, as you will have seen, are tied round with strings.  They believe that the zemes send rain or sunshine in response to their prayers, according to their needs.  They believe the zemes to be intermediaries between them and God, whom they represent as one, eternal, omnipotent, and invisible.  Each cacique has his zemes, which he honours with particular care.  Their ancestors gave to the supreme and eternal Being two names, Iocauna and Guamaonocon.  But this supreme Being was himself brought forth by a mother, who has five names, Attabeira, Mamona, Guacarapita, Iella, and Guimazoa.