himself sent Pane to live in the village of caci- que (chief) Guarionex to learn their language (Arawak), and “…to discover and understand of the beliefs and idolatries of the Indians, and of how they worship their gods....” Pane recorded what happened when the
four brothers tried to ask for food from an- other mythical figure, Bayamanaco. “As soon as they reached Bayamanaco’s
door, and they saw that he was carrying cazabe [cassava bread], the brothers said: ‘Ahiacabo guarocoel,’ which means: ‘Lets us meet this our grandfather.’
Likewise, seeing his brothers
before him, Deminan Caracaracol went in to see if he could get some cassava bread, which is the kind of bread they eat in that country. Once inside Bayamanaco’s house, Caracaracol asked him for cazabe, the aforesaid bread. And the latter put his hand on his nose and spat a guanguayo [wad of spittle] onto his back; the guanguayo was full of cohoba that he had ordered prepared that day. This cohoba is a certain powder that they take at times to purge themselves and for other effects that will be described below. To take it, they use a reed half the length of an arm, and they put one end in the nose and the other in the powder; thus they inhale it through the nose, and this serves as a great purgative. And in this way he gave them the guanguayo instead of the bread he was mak- ing, and he went away very indignant that they had asked him for it…. After this, Caracaracol turned back to his brothers and told them what had happened to him with Bayamanaco, and how he spat guanguayo on his back, which ached very badly. Then his brothers looked at his back and saw it was very swollen; and that swelling grew so much that he was about to die. Then they tried to cut it, and they could not; and taking a stone axe, they opened it up, and a live, female turtle emerged; and so they built their house and raised the turtle. I did not find out any more about this, and what I have written down is of little help.” Pane, according to his own statements, his
writing style and some contemporary writ- ers, did not seem to be as well educated as other chroniclers of his time. Nevertheless, his work, though short and simple, is of great importance at many levels. For example, he is the only European writer who cohabitated with the Natives from Hispaniola, learned their language and reported on their religion before the impact of colonization had a det-
ABOVE: W.C. Orchard, staff member of the Museum of the American Indian, circa 1916, restoring the effigy vessel shortly after its arrival at the MAI in New York. L00400. Photograph gift of W.C. Orchard to the National Museum of the American Indian. BELOW: Theodoor de Booy, Dutch archaeologist, who collected the effigy bottle for George Gustav Heye’s Museum of the American Indian circa 1916, photographed in the field in the Dominican Republic. Photographic archives of the National Museum of the American Indian, N04834.
rimental effect in their way of life. Hence his work is considered by many to be the first ethnographic treatise of the Americas. The collector of this bottle, de Booy, was a
Dutch archaeologist who worked in the Mu- seum of the American Indian, the predeces- sor of our Museum, between 1912 and 1918. Unfortunately, we do not know much about the origin and discovery of this effigy bottle. According to the collection records, the bottle was found in the area of the town of Andres, south-central Dominican Republic. It is un- clear whether de Booy actually discovered it or collected it from someone who found it in a cave. However, de Booy never mentioned this effigy bottle in any of his published reports on his work in Dominican Republic, suggesting that the latter explanation is the more plausible. The object arrived to New York in 1916 in a
relatively good state of conservation, but with its right arm and left earlobe missing. William C. Orchard, conservator of the museum, can be seen treating the object in archival photos. From them it is clear that the missing parts were reconstructed and added, possibly us- ing plaster, and painting them over to match the color of the rest of the effigy. The added parts are observable in this old photo by their
light or whitish tone compared to the orangey color of the rest of the vessel. At the present, this amazing piece can be
appreciated at the Caribbean section of the ex- hibit Infinity of Nations at the Museum’s George Gustav Heye Center in New York City.X
All quotations are from Fray Ramon Pane, An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians: A New Edition, with an Introductory Study, Note, & Appendixes by Jose Juan Arrom. (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999.)
L. Antonio Curet is an archaeologist who specializes in Caribbean and Mesoamerican ancient history. He is currently the Curator of Archaeology at the National Museum of the American Indian.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 39
PHOTOS COURTESY OF NMAI PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVES
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