An account of the antiquities of the Indians : chronicles of the New World encounter / Fray Ramón Pané ; a new edition with an introductory study, notes, and appendixes by José Juan Arrom ; translated by Susan C. Griswold.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians -- An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians, Diligently Gathered by Fray Ramon, a Man Who Knows Their Language, by Order of the Admiral -- I. Concerning the place from which the Indians have come and in what manner -- II. How the men were separated from the women -- III. How the indignant Guahayona resolved to leave, seeing that those men whom he had sent to gather the digo for bathing did not return -- V. How afterwards there were once again women on the said Island of Hispaniola, which before was called Haiti, and the inhabitants call it by this name; and they called it and the other islands Bohio -- VI. How Guahayona returned to the said Cauta, from where he had taken the women -- VII. How there were once again women on the aforementioned Island of Haiti, which is now called Hispaniola -- VIII. How they found a solution so that they would be women -- IX. How they say the sea was made -- X. How the four identical sons of Itiba Cahubaba, who died in childbirth, went together to take Yaya's gourd, which held his son Yayael, who had been transformed into fishes, and none dared to seize it except Deminan Caracaracol, who took it down, and everyone ate their fill of fish -- XI. Concerning what happened to the four brothers when they were fleeing from Yaya -- XII. Concerning what they believe about the dead wandering about, and what they are like, and what they do -- XIII. Concerning the shape they say the dead have -- XIV. Concerning whence they deduce this and who leads them to hold such a belief -- XV. Concerning the observances of these Indian behiques, and how they practice medicine and teach the people, and in their medicinal cures they are often deceived -- XVI. Concerning what the said behiques do -- XVII. How the aforesaid physicians have at times been deceived -- XVIII. How the relatives of the dead man take revenge when they have got an answer by means of the spell of the drinks -- [XVIII BIS]. How they find out what they want from the one whom they have burned, and how they take revenge -- XIX. How they make and keep the zemis made of wood or of stone -- XX. Concerning the zemi Buya and Aiba, who they say was burned when there was war, and afterwards, when they washed him with yuca juice, he grew arms, and his eyes reappeared, and his body grew -- XXI. Concerning Guamarete's zemi -- XXII. Concerning another zemi called Opiyelguobiran, which was in the possession of a preeminent man called Sabananiobabo, who had many subjects under his command -- XXIII. Concerning another zemi whose name was Guabancex -- XXIV. Concerning what they believe about another zemi whose name was Baraguabael -- XXV. Concerning the things they affirm were told by two principal caciques of the Island of Hispaniola, one called Cacibaquel, father of the aforesaid Guarionex, and the other Guamanacoel -- [XXV BIS]. How we left to go to the country of the aforesaid Mabiatue--that is, I, Fray Ramon Pane, a humble friar, Fray Juan de Borgona of the Order of Saint Francis, and Juan Mateo, the first man to receive the holy baptismal water on the Island of Hispaniola -- XXVI. Concerning what happened to the images and the miracle God worked to show his power -- Appendix A.. Christopher Columbus -- Appendix B.. Pietro Martire d'Anghiera -- Appendix C.. Fray Bartolome de Las Casas.