They said
that there once lived in the island a mighty
cacique, whose only son conspiring against
him, he slew him. He afterwards collected
and picked his bones, and preserved them in
a gourd, as was the custom of the natives with
the relics of their friends. On a subsequent
day, the cacique and his wife opened the gourd
to contemplate the bones of their son, when,
to their astonishment, several fish, great and
small, leaped out. Upon this the cacique
closed the gourd, and placed it on the top of
his house, boasting that he had the sea shut up
within it, and could have fish whenever he
pleased. Four brothers, however, born at
the same birth, and curious intermeddlers,
hearing of this gourd, came during the absence
of the cacique to peep into it. In their carelessness they suffered it to fall upon the ground,
when it was dashed to pieces, and there issued
forth a mighty flood, with dolphins, and
sharks, and great tumbling whales; and the
water spread, until it overflowed the earth, and
formed the ocean, leaving only the tops of the
mountains uncovered, which are the present
islands.
Irving, Washington, A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 4 vols., London: John Murray, 1828, v. 2, pp. 118-119.
No comments:
Post a Comment