Gatschet.] *^^0 [July IS, 



guana, Venezuela and north-east of the entrance to the Gulf of Mara- 

 caibo ; it belongs to the dominion of the Dutch in the "West Indies, 

 which extends over the following islands : Aruba (preferable to the 

 orthigraphy : Oruba), Curasao, Cura<jilla at the south-eastern cape of 

 CuraQao, Bonaire or Buen Aire, and the two Aves or Bird islands. 

 CuraQao is the largest island of the archipelago and consists of a barren- 

 rork almost devoid of vegetation ; the capital of the Dutch colony, Wil- 

 helmstadt. is built upon its south-western shore. In former times the 

 thrifty inhabitants accumulated wealth as the mediators of a lively 

 smuggling trade between the Spanish and other colonies of the "West 

 Indies. Salt is now the staple produce of Curacjao with its 22,000 inhabi- 

 tants ; as to its size, it is nearly three times larger than Aruba, which has 

 200 square kilometres and 5670 inhabitants. 



The explorer Alphonse L. Pinart, from whom the linguistic material 

 printed below was obtained, visited the Curagao group in the summer of 

 1882. Although the natives of Aruba have since A. D. 1800 abandoned 

 their paternal language for the Papiamento jargon, their exterior is still 

 of a pure Indian type. The Aruban language was probably the same as 

 that of Curasao and related to the vernacular of the peninsula of Para- 

 guana. From natives far advanced in age Pinart succeeded in obtaining 

 a few terms of the Aruban language and of local nomenclature, also six 

 sorcerer's formulas, and from the Papiamento, as spoken at present, he 

 secured a limited number of plant and animal names evidently pertaining 

 to the extinct Indian dialect ; the number of these may be easily increased 

 by future travelers. 



An old Aruba Indian, recently deceased, witnessed at the former Indian 

 encampment at Saboneta the inhumation of a native female in one of the 

 large conical ollas, her body being doubled up within the vase and the 

 head protruding through the orifice. A smaller urn was then placed upon 

 the head, bottom up, and the whole covered with earth. Several Aruban 

 grottoes and rock-shelters yielded inscriptions and pictographs to the ex- 

 plorer, who considers their style as related to the pictography of the 

 Orinoco and Apure countries. Fragments of pottery, hatchets made of 

 shells and stones, are profusedly scattered around the ancient encamp- 

 ments of the native Arubans. 



The name of Gurar^no island seems to be the Tupi word coaracy, curass^ 

 sun, in Guarani quara^i ; Aruba resembles the name of a shrub which is 

 called in French Guyana : arube. Nicolas Fort y Roldan, in his Cuba 

 indigena (Madrid, 1881), p. 12.5, gives arabo as the name of a plant as 

 heard once on the Great Antilles. For Curacao compare : Navarrete, Gol- 

 leccion de los Viages, III, pp. 259. 



Nouns, verbs and sentences. 



adamudu rain 



baru xantu u5u to ask for something to eat 



danshikki, danshebu sack, pouch 



