March 6, 1891.] 1 



[Brmton. 



PEOCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 



HELD AT PHILADELPHIA, FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. 



VOL. XXIX. JANUARY TO JUNE, 1891. No. 135. 



Vocabularies from the Musquito Coast. 



By Daniel G. Brinton, M.D. 

 (Read before the American Philosophical Society, March 6, 1891.} 



Through the kindness of the Rev. W. Siebarger, a missionary of 

 the United Brethren, now resident on the Musquito coast, I have 

 obtained several new vocabularies from that region, which offer 

 points of interest to the ethnologist. 



The most important of these is a list of words from the language 

 of the Ramas tribe, the first and only specimen of their tongue that 

 I have encountered. These people live on a small island in Blew- 

 icld lagoon. They number at present about two hundred and fifty 

 souls, all of whom have been converted to Christianity, and all of 

 them are able to speak and read English except a few very old per- 

 sons. Their native tongue is rapidly disappearing, and in a few 

 years, probably, no one will be left able to use it fluently and cor- 

 rectly. 



In physique they are described as large and strongly built ; in 

 temperament, submissive and teachable. 



Their language has always been reported as wholly different from 

 that of the Musquito Indians, who occupy the adjacent mainland, 

 and this is shown to be correct by the specimen sent me. It bears, 

 in fact, no relation to any other tongue along the Musquito coast! 

 t does not, however, stand alone, constituting an independent 

 stock, but is clearly a branch, not very remote, of a family of lan- 

 guages once spoken near Chiriqui lagoon, and thence across to the 

 Pacific, or nearly that far. 



To this stock I have, in my classification of American languages 



FROG. AMER. PHIL08. SOC. XXIX. 135. A. PRINTED APRIL 10, 1891. 



