1392.] 



105 



[Brinton. 



The conception of number is very slightly developed in this 

 stock, and even the dialects most closely related show wide varia- 

 tions ; for example : 



In the vocabularies both moko and j'enU (Z^^^) s^re given for hand, 

 and both are used in the words for " five." 



In the Tucano group the dialect which has retained, the strongest 

 affinities is the Curetu : 



I believe the evidence here briefly presented will be adequate to 

 prove the extended affinities of this stock, and to vindicate its 

 importance in South American ethnography. How far its analogies 

 may be traced north and west I have not sufficient materials to 

 determine. In The American Race, p. 275, I pointed out a 

 few similarities between Betoya and Choco roots; and I would 

 particularly mention that the words for ''man" and "woman," 

 uma and ira, reported by early explorers (in 15 15) as in use along 

 the northern shore of Venezuela and the Isthmus of Panama, cer- 

 tainly belong to the Betoya language.* 



* " Eu toda esta tierra llaman ^ los hombres omes, y a las mugeres iras." See J. Acosta, 

 Hisloria de Nueva Granada, p. 453. The tract referred to is from the Gulf of Uraba to the 

 Punto del Nombre de Dios, along the shore of the Isthmus of Panama. 



niOC. AMER. I'HILOS. SOC. XXX. 137. N. PRINTED MARCH 30, 1892. 



