Among the earliest people of the land known as modern-day Dominican Republic, from where the cacáo in this bar originates, the Tainos believed that the forest there is inhabited by cemíes (spirits) of the dead called opías. Anyone could identify opías because they lack navels. They supposedly come out of the forest at night to feast on guayaba (guava). Tropical bats also munch on guayaba at night which led the Tainos to associate opías with bats.

As spirits of the dead, opías also associate with the deities of the underworld (the place of death). According to Ramón Pané, the Hieronymite friar sent by Columbus to study native mythology, one such deity "Opiyelguobirán has 4 feet like a dog & [made] of wood”.

Yale Prof. José Juan Arrom suggested that this deity served as the daylight guardian. Greek mythology assigned a similar role to Cherberus, the 3-headed dog who stood at the river crossing that marked the entrance into the realm of Pluto.

In Cave of the Jagua: The Mythological World of the Tainos, author Antonio Stevens-Arroyo identifies Opiyelguobirán as one of the twins who assist Maquetaurie Guayaba -- the Lord of the Dead, Master of Sweetness & Delight, symbol obviously of the guayaba berry (whose juice produced the Tainos’ black body paint which symbolized death). He was represented by bat symbols.

Additionally, Opiyelguobirán, as Master of Privacy & Felicity, was the twin of the picaresque Corocote -- Guardian of Sexual Delight, Romance, & Spontaneity.

Anthropologist Henry Petitjean Roget points out that "cemíes are not specific representations but symbolic entities... like many symbols, [they] cannot be reduced to a single interpretation."

And neither can this bar.