350 



tanguage may be said to consist in the manage- 

 ment of the verbs. The relatives, the pronouns, 

 the prepositions, the adverbs, the numerals, and 

 in fine all the other particles as well as the nouns 

 are subject to this metamorphosis, as chiuj what ? 

 cliiumen, what's to be done ? mivuj how many ? 

 mivui, how many are they ? eimimolan, I have 

 no occasion for you ; minchej under, minchen, to 

 be under ; melij four, melin, to be four ; doi/, 

 more, doin, to be more ; vem, like, vemen, to be 

 like another. 



Proper names are also susceptible of this ele- 

 gance. Thus from Pedro, is formed the verb 

 petron, to be Pedro ; Petrobui, was Pedro. In 

 consequence of this singular variation, the sub- 

 stantives and adjectives produce some very 

 curious verbs; as from pulli or pilllu, the soul, 

 is derived pM Z/zi w, to apply the whole soul, to pay 

 the greatest attention ; in like manner from then, 

 time comes, thenen, to arrive in time ; from re, 

 pure, relen, to do only one thing, &c. Owing to 

 this property the translation of European works 

 into the Chilian is very easy, in which, instead of 

 losing any of their spirit and elegance, they 

 acquire a degree of precision even superior to 

 the originals. This, among other instances that 

 might be mentioned, is strongly evinced in the 

 Christian Thoughts of the celebrated Bouhours, 

 which was translated in the year seventeen hun- 

 dred and thirteen. There can be no better test 



