From Land to Sky and Back

One of the most prominent animals on the imagery of adornos from the Greater Antilles, which is found in the liminal space between the earthly plane and the celestial plane, is the bat (see Oudhuis 2008; Wauben 2016). The particular cosmological significance of the bat revolves around the creature’s association with the spirits of the dead, known as opías. Among the indigenous inhabitants of the island of Hispaniola, death was merely conceived of as the end of physical life, as the life of the soul would go on in an equally real state (García Arévalo 1997, 112). The souls of the dead would go to a place called Coaybey, known as the house and dwelling place of the dead, of which one named Maquuetaurie Guayaba was the lord (Pané 1999, 17-18). The dead remained hidden from daylight, only to emerge from their hideouts by nightfall, and the living were fearful of walking alone at night because of the dangers of encountering an opía. At night, the opías assumed the body of an animal, probably the bat, or of a human, to roam freely among and seduce the living, and to eat the sweet pulp of a certain fruit called guayaba (guava, Psidium guayaba). The dead could only be distinguished from the living by touching their bellies, as the dead were known to have no navel (Pané 1999, 18-19).

The behavior of the opías bears a particular resemblance with fruit-eating bats (Artibeus jamaicensis), which is the most common species in Hispaniola, as in a like manner the fruit-eating bat shows a particular dietary preference towards guavas and emerges at night (García Arévalo 1997, 120). In addition, on imagery from the Greater Antilles, including on adornos, features characteristic of the bat are commonly merged with that of human

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faces, which may highlight the isomorphism between the bat and the souls of the dead (García Arévalo 1997, 114).

Similarly, the owl was feared for its association with the souls of the dead. The owl had the ability to announce the proximity of death through its blood-curling nocturnal call (Arrom 1998, 19-23; García Arévalo 1997, 114). Nowadays the belief persists that the owl can announce the proximity of death of one of the occupants of a house by flying over it. In addition, owls are commonly depicted on the imagery from the Greater Antilles with human ears and perforated lobes, possibly emphasizing its relation to the dead (Arrom 1998, 19-23; García Arévalo 1997, 120-123). Furthermore, similar to the bat, owls are known to inhabit caves or caverns, which form a connection to the various planes of the cosmos, and simultaneously to the place where the dead go (Keegan and Carlson 2008, 102).

Finally, various birds cannot be left unmentioned among the beings that can fly into the celestial realm. Birds play a significant role in the creation narratives, as recorded by Pané, on two occasions. The first occasion involves the narrative in which Mácocael is turned into stone by the Sun, which is followed by others who were turned into trees called jobos or myrobalan (hog plum trees), and finally a person named Yahubaba who was caught by the Sun and turned into a bird. However, Yahubaba was not turned into any bird, but specifically into the nightingale, known as Yahuba-bayael, which characteristically sings in the morning (Pané 1999, 6-7). The nightingale is believed to sing during the season when it became a bird, as he mourns his fate and pleads for help (Anghiera 1999, 48; Pané 1999, 7).

On the second occasion, in another narrative, the woodpecker acts out a significant role. In this particular narrative, men are left without women, whom they greatly missed, as they stayed in the cave from which the first humans emerged. One night, as they went out to bathe in rainwater for it had rained a lot, they observed female-looking persons from afar climbing into the myrobalan trees. The men tried to catch them, but were not able to hold onto their bodies, as they kept slipping from their hands like eels. They requested the help of the four Caracaracoles, who had rough and callused hands from a disease like mange (or syphilis), and, therefore would be better able to hold onto the bodies of the creatures. The Caracaracoles were indeed able to catch four of the female-looking creatures, who upon closer view appeared to have neither the sex of a male nor female

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(Anghiera 1999, 48; Pané 1999, 11-12). In their desire for women, the men looked for a particular bird that makes holes in trees, which was known as Inriri Cahubabayael (i.e. the woodpecker), as this bird was believed to also be able to make a particular hole on the sexless creatures. Therefore, the men tied the bird to the bodies of the creatures, the bird started burrowing holes in the place where the female sex is located, and the men finally had women (Pané 1999, 12).

In addition, particular nightbirds (e.g. nighthawk and night heron) may have had a particular cosmological significance because of a possibly similar association with opías as the bat and the owl. Furthermore, a variety of birds had an important role as

subsistence resources (e.g. mallards, waterfowls and parrots) (Stevens-Arroyo 1988, 40; Veloz Maggiolo 1997, 38). Finally, the feathers of birds were considered to be highly valuable and played an important role in vestments and headdresses (Alegría 1995; Keegan and Carlson 2008, 100-101), which can also be observed on one of the adornos from El Flaco (which is discussed further in chapter 4).