An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians

Accompanying Columbus on his second voyage to the New World in 1494 was a young Spanish friar named Ramn Pan. The friars assignment was to live among the Indians whom Columbus had discovered on the island of Hispaniola (today the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic), to learn their language, and to write a record of their lives and beliefs. While the culture of these indigenous peoplewho came to be known as the Tanois now extinct, the written record completed by Pan around 1498 has survived. This volume makes Pans landmark Accountthe first book written in a European language on American soilavailable in an annotated English edition.Edited by the noted Hispanist Jos Juan Arrom, Pans report is the only surviving direct source of information about the myths, ceremonies, and lives of the New World inhabitants whom Columbus first encountered. The friars text contains many linguistic and cultural observations, including descriptions of the Tano peoples healing rituals and their beliefs about their souls after death. Pan provides the first known description of the use of the hallucinogen cohoba, and he recounts the use of idols in ritual ceremonies. The names, functions, and attributes of native gods; the mythological origin of the aboriginal peoples attitudes toward sex and gender; and their rich stories of creation are described as well.