250 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



everything for making the measurement at the latter station, when 

 thick clouds concealed the summit of Chimborazo. 



Those who are engaged in investigations on languages may not be 

 unwilling to find here some conjectures respecting the etymology of 

 the widely celebrated name of Chimborazo. Chimbo is the name 

 of the Corregimiento or District in which the mountain of Chimbo- 

 razo is situated. La Condamine (Voyage a 1'Equateur, 1751, p. 

 184) deduces Chimbo from " chimpani," " to pass over a river." 

 Chimbo-rac.0 signifies, according to him, " la neige de Tautre bord," 

 because at the village of Chimbo one crosses a stream in full view 

 of the enormous snow-clad mountain. (In the Quichua language 

 " chimpa" signifies the "other, or farther side;" and chimpani signi- 

 fies to pass or cross over a river, a bridge, &c.) Several natives of 

 the province of Quito have assured me that Chimborazo signifies 

 merely "the snow of Chimbo." "We find the same termination in 

 Carguai-razo. But razo appears to be a provincial word. The 

 Jesuit Holguin (whose excellent " Yocabujario de la Lengua gene- 

 ral de todo el Peru llamada Lengua Quichua 6 del Inca," printed at 

 Lima in 1608, is in my possession) knows nothing of the word 

 "razo." The genuine word for snow is "ritti." On the other 

 hand, my learned friend Professor Buschmann remarks that, in the 

 Chinchaysuyo dialect (spoken north of Cuzco up to Quito and 

 Pasto), raju (the j apparently guttural) signifies snow ; see the 

 word in Juan de Figueredo's notice of Chinchaysuyo words ap- 

 pended to Diego de Torres Rubio, Arte, y Vocabulario de la Lengua 

 Quichua, reimpr. en Lima, 1754 ; fol. 222, b. For the first two 

 syllables of the name of the mountain, and for the village of 

 Chimbo (as chimpa and chimpani suit badly on account of the a), 

 we may find a definite signification by means of the Quichua word 

 chimpu, an expression used for a colored thread or fringe (serial de 

 lana, hilo 6 borlilla de colores) for the red of the sky (arreboles) 

 and for a halo round the sun or moon. One may try to derive the 

 name of the mountain directly from this word, without the inter- 

 vention of the village or district. In any case, and whatever the 

 etymology of Chimborazo may be, it must be written in Peruvian 

 Chimporazo, as we know that the Peruvians have no b. 



But what if the name of this giant mountain should have nothing 



