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That is both snuff up a certain powder named cobaba by the nose, which intoxicates them and makes them speak incoherently, which they say is talking with the cemis, who tell them the cause of the sickness. When the Buhuitihu goes to visit a sick person, he smears his face with soot or powdered charcoal. He wraps up some small bones and a bit of flesh, which he conceals in his mouth.
Every one observes some particular superstitious ceremonies in worshipping their idols, which they name cemis. They believe that there is an immortal being, invisible like Heaven, who had a mother, but no beginning, whom they call Atabei, Jermaoguacar, Apito, and Zuimaco; which are all several names of the Deity.
Almost every person in Hispaniola has abundance of cemis; some have their fathers, mothers, and predecessors and kindred, some in stone and others in wood, some that speak, some that eat, some that cause things to grow, others that bring rain, and others that give winds. When any one is sick, the Buhuitihu is brought, who must be dieted exactly in the same manner with the sick man.
Enraged at the disappointment of their intended revenge, the kindred again assault him at the first opportunity, putting out his eyes and emasculating him, without which previous operation it alleged that a Buhuitihu cannot be lulled by the bastinado. The cemis of wood are thus made.
I have heard them commend one of these images as superior to others, and have observed them to shew more devotion and respect to one than to another, as we do in our processions in time of need, and the people and their caciques boast among one another of having the best cemis.
It contained two cemis made of stone, about a quarter of a yard long, having their hands bound, and which looked as if they sweated. These were called Boinaiel and Maroio, and were much visited and honoured, especially when they wanted rain.
They allege that during the night the poor battered Buhuitihu is visited by numerous snakes, white, black, green, and variegated, which lick his face, body, and fractured members till the bones knit together again, when he gets up and walks to his own house, pretending that the cemis had restored him.
20. 24 . The cemis have various names, one was called Baidrama, which is said to have been a burnt dead body restored to shape by having been washed in the juice of giuca. Corocose is the name of another, which is said to have removed itself from a house that was on fire to another dwelling, and used to cohabit with the women.
Having received satisfactory answers, the tree is cut down and formed into a cemi, for which a house is built and endowed, and cogiaba or religious ceremonies performed there at certain stated times. The stone cemis are of several sorts, some being those stones which the Buhuitihus pretend to take from the bodies of the sick, as before related.
Guabancex is said to have been a female cemi and to raise storms, being accompanied by two inferiors; Guataniva, who summoned the other cemis to aid in raising the intended storm, and Coatrischie who gathered the waters of inundations in the mountains and then let them loose to destroy the country. Faraguvaol is the name of another that used often to escape from its temple.
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