most
died of hunger because they dared stop nowhere. Nevertheless, pressed
by famine, they knocked at the door of a baker and asked him for
_cazabi_, that is to say, for bread. The baker spit with such force
upon the first who entered, that an enormous tumour was formed, of
which he almost died. After deliberating amongst themselves, they
opened the tumour, with a sharp stone, and from it came forth a woman
who became the wife of each of the four brothers, one after another,
and bore them sons and daughters.

[Note 22: Diego Landa, in his _Cosas de Yucatan_, and Cogolludo
(_Hist. de Yucatan_), treat this subject. Peter Martyr likewise
elaborates it in his letters to Pomponius Laetus and the Cardinal de
Santa Croce. _Opus Epistolarum_, ep. 177 and 180.]

Another story, most illustrious Prince, is still more quaint. There is
a cavern called Jouanaboina, situated in the territory of a cacique
called Machinnech, which is venerated with as great respect by the
majority of the islanders as were formerly the caves of Corinth, of
Cyrrha, and Nissa amongst the Greeks.[23] The walls of this cavern
are decorated with different paintings; two sculptured zemes, called
Binthiatelles and Marohos, stand at the entrance.

[Note 23: The caverns of Hayti have been visited and described by
Decourtilz, _Voyage d'un Naturaliste_. Some of them contain carvings
representing serpents, frogs, deformed human figures in distorted
postures, etc.]

When asked why this cavern is reverenced, the natives gravely reply
that it is because the sun and moon issued forth from it to illuminate
the universe. They go on pilgrimages to that cavern just as we go
to Rome, or to the Vatican, Compostela, or the Holy Sepulchre at
Jerusalem.

Another kind of superstition is as follows. They believe the dead walk
by night and feed upon _guarina_, a fruit resembling the quince,
but unknown in Europe. These ghosts love to mix with the living and
deceive women. They take on the form of a man, and seem to wish to
enjoy a woman's favour, but when about to accomplish their purpose
they vanish into thin air. If any one thinks, upon feeling something
strange upon his bed, that there is a spectre lying beside him, he
only needs to assure himself by touching his belly, for, according to
their idea, the dead may borrow every human member except the navel.
If therefore the navel is absent, they know that it is a ghost, and
it is sufficient to touch it to make it immediatel