[5] For a history of this interesting movement in certain phases of European culture see Gilbert Chinard, L'Exotisme américain (Paris, 1911).
[6] Among early writers on Antillean religion the most important are Christopher Columbus, Ramon Pane, and Peter Martyr d'Anghiera. Columbus left Fray Ramon Pane in Haiti with instructions to report on the religious beliefs of the natives; and in Fernando Columbus's Historie, ch. lxii, Pane's narrative is incorporated, introduced by a brief quotation from Christopher Columbus, describing Zemiism. After Pane, the account of Haitian religion in Peter Martyr's "First Decade" is the most important source, although Benzoni, Gómara, Herrera, Las Casas, and Oviedo give additional or corroborative information. Of recent writings those of J. W. Fewkes, embodying the results of careful archaeological studies, form the most important contribution. Part ii of Joyce's Central American and West Indian Archaeology gives a general survey of the field, which is more briefly treated in livre ii, 3e partie, of Beuchat's Manuel, and in its comparative aspects by Wissler, The American Indian.
[7] Beuchat, Joyce [a], and Fewkes describe the condition of the Antilleans at the time of the discovery as reconstructed from early accounts and archaeological investigations. Of the early writings, the descriptions of Las Casas are the most detailed. The use of Taïno to designate the island Arawakan tribes follows Fewkes , p. 26: "Among the first words heard by the comrades of Columbus when they landed in Guadeloupe were 'Taïno! taïno!'—'Peace! peace!' or 'We are friends.' The designation 'taïno' has been used by several writers as a characteristic name for the Antillean race. Since it is both significant and euphonious, it may be adopted as a convenient substitute for the adjective 'Antillean' to designate a cultural type. The author applies the term to the original sedentary people of the West Indies, as distinguished from the Carib." The incident to which reference is made is described in Select Letters of Columbus (HS), p. 28. It is perhaps worth while to note that Peter Martyr (tr. MacNutt, i. 66, 81) says that taïno signifies "a virtuous man." The word carib, caniba, is the source of our cannibal. It is possible that it means "man-eater" and is of Taïno origin. Columbus, in the Journal of the first voyage (tr. Bourne, p. 223), is authority for the statement that "Carib" is the Hispaniolan form of the name. Im Thurn (p. 163) says that the Guiana Carib call themselves Carinya, which would seem to show that the word is an autonym, in which case it may mean, as Herrera says (III. v), "valiant." It is rather curious, if the insular Carib were the inveterate cannibals the earlier writers make them to be, that those of the mainland should have held the practice in abhorrence, for which we have Humboldt's statement, Voyage (tr. Ross, ii. 413).
[8] A term of some interest is cacique, which is generally regarded as Haitian in origin, being, says Peter Martyr (tr. MacNutt, i. 82) their word for "king." Bastian, however, affirms that it is Arabic (ii. 293, note): "Das Wort Cazique ist nicht amerikanisch, sino arabigo, usado entre los alarabes de Africa en el Reyno de Mazagan, con el qual nombran al principal y cabeças de los aduares, como tambien le nombran Xeque (meint Simon)."
[9] The literature of the discovery is summarized by Beuchat, "Bibliographie," ch. iv. Christopher Columbus's Letters and Journal, tr. Major, Markham, and Bourne, are here quoted.
[10] The question of Amazons (cf. infra, [Ch. IX, i]), is a curious commingling of Old and New World myth, with, perhaps, some foundation in primitive custom, especially linguistic. Thus Beuchat, p. 509 (citing Raymond Breton and Lucien Adam; cf. also Ballet, citing du Tertre, pp. 398-99), states that the Caribs of the Isles had separate vocabularies, in part at least, for men and women, and that the women's speech contained a majority of Arawak words. This argument should not be pushed too far, however, for there are a number of South American languages with well-differentiated man-tongue and woman-tongue, where a similar origin of the difference is not shown. On his first voyage Columbus (letters to de Santangel and Sanchez), though he did not meet them, heard of "ferocious men, eaters of human flesh, wearing their hair long like women." On the second voyage—as described by Chanca in his "Letter to the Chapter of Seville" (Select Letters)—the Caribs were encountered and found to be holding in slavery many Taïno women: "In their attacks upon the neighbouring islands, these people capture as many of the women as they can, especially those who are young and beautiful, and keep them as concubines; and so great a number do they carry off, that in fifty houses no men were to be seen" (p. 31). It is added that the Caribs ate the children born of these captive women (a custom ascribed also to some South American cannibalistic tribes); but as it is said in the same connexion that captive boys were not devoured until they grew up, "for they say that the flesh of boys and women is not good to eat," the story is scarcely plausible. Herrera repeats that the Caribs ate no women, but kept them as slaves, in association with the statement that the natives of Dominica ate a friar, and dying of a flux caused by his flesh, gave over their cannibalism. These stories seem to point to a ritualistic element in the cannibalism, for to the Carib the flesh of warriors was the only man's meat. Of course, in the notion of Amazons there was an element of myth as well as of custom, and the myth was certainly known to Columbus, if we may trust the authenticity (and there is small reason to doubt it) of the paragraph with which Ramon Pane's narrative is introduced. For the myth in question see supra, pp. [31-32], and cf. Pane, chh. iii-v.
[11] The story of the search for the Fountain of Youth and of the colony of Antillean Indians in Florida is to be found in Fontaneda, pp. 17-19. The influence of Antillean culture has been traced well to the north of Florida, where it may have been extended by the pre-Muskhogean population; see also Herrera, III. v.
[12] The story of Hathvey, or Hatuey, is given by Fewkes , pp. 211-12, and by Joyce [a], p. 244; its source is Las Casas [a], III. xxv.
[13] West Indian idolatry, called Zemiism, is earliest described in the passage attributed to Christopher Columbus (Fernando Columbus, ch. lxi); other authorities here quoted are Benzoni, pp. 78-80; Peter Martyr, "First Decade," ix (tr. MacNutt, i. 167-78); Ramon Pane, ch. xix-xxiv (tr. Pinkerton, xii. 87-89); and Las Casas , chh. clxvi-vii; cf. also Fewkes, especially , [e], Joyce [a], and Beuchat.