102 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



well, but never utter; and the women have likewise 

 their own words and phrases which the men never use 

 except in ridicule. The savages of Dominica relate 

 that when they came to live in these islands (the 

 Lesser Antilles) they found them in possession of a 

 nation of Arowaks, whom they entirely destroyed, 

 except the women, whom they married. Thus, the 

 women having preserved their own language, taught 

 it to their children. Having been practiced until the 

 present time, this language remains different in a great 

 many respects from that of the men. 



But the boys, after they attain the age of five or 

 six, although they well understand the speech of 

 their mothers and sisters, follow their fathers and 

 elder brothers in the formation of their language. In 

 proof of what they relate, they allege that there is 

 some resemblance between the language of the female 

 Caribs and that of the Arowaks of the main-land 

 (South America). 



The Caribs had also a certain form of speech 

 which they used among themselves in their councils 

 of war? — a gibberish very difficult to understand, of 

 which neither the women nor children were permitted 

 to have any knowledge ; nor even the young men, until 

 they had given some proof of their bravery, or of zeal 

 in the common quarrels of their country against their 

 enemies. It is owing to this fact that their designs 

 were never prematurely disclosed, and their invasions 

 of an enemy's territory always so unexpected. They 

 have in their native tongue few terms of abuse, and 

 about the most offensive is: "you are no good," or, 

 "you are no livelier than a turtle." Again, they have 

 no equivalent word for virtue, which even at the present 



