rocurrunt, capiunt: veluti anguillae de manibus
eorum labuntur. Consilium ineunt. Ex senioris consilio, scabiosos
leprososque, si qui sint inter eos, conquirunt, qui manos asperas
callossasque habeant ut apraehensa facilius queant ritenere. Hos
homines ipsi caracaracoles appellant. Venatum proficiscuntur: ex
multis quas capiebant quatuor tantum retinent; pro feminis illis
uti adnituntur, carere feminea natura comperiunt. Iterum accitis
senioribus, quid facieudum consulunt. Ut picus avis admittatur, qui
acuto rostra intra ipsorum inguina foramen effodiat, constituerunt:
ipsismet caracaracolibus hominibus callosis, feminas apertis cruribus
tenentibus. Quam pulchre picus adducitur! Picus feminis sexum aperit.
Hinc bellissime habuit insula, quas cupiebat feminas; hinc procreata
soboles_. "I cease to marvel," continues the author, "since it is
written in many volumes of veracious Greek history that the Myrmidons
were generated by ants. Such are some of the many legends which
pretended sages expound with calm and unmoved visage from pulpits and
tribunals to a stupid gaping crowd."]

Here is a more serious tradition concerning the origin of the sea.[22]
There formerly lived in the island a powerful chief named Jaia who
buried his only son in a gourd. Several months later, distracted by
the loss of his son, Jaia visited the gourd. He pried it open and out
of it he beheld great whales and marine monsters of gigantic size come
forth. Thus he reported to some of his neighbours that the sea was
contained in that gourd. Upon hearing this story, four brothers born
at a birth and who had lost their mother when they were born sought to
obtain possession of the gourd for the sake of the fish. But Jaia, who
often visited the mortal remains of his son, arrived when the brothers
held the gourd in their hands. Frightened at being thus taken in the
act both of sacrilege and robbery, they dropped the gourd, which
broke, and took flight. From the broken gourd the sea rushed forth;
the valley was filled, the immense plain which formed the universe was
flooded, and only the mountains raised their heads above the water,
forming the islands, several of which still exist to-day. This, Most
Illustrious Prince, is the origin of the sea, nor need you imagine
that the islander who has handed down this tradition does not enjoy
the greatest consideration. It is further related that the four
brothers, in terror of Jaia, fled in different directions and al