BATTDA.L OF OABCITA. 298 



derived from one another, sometimes furnish words utterly 

 different for the most common and most important things.* 

 But in discussions on mother-tongues and derivative lan- 

 guages, it is not the sounds, the roots only, that are 

 decisive ; but rather the interior structure and grammatical 

 forms. In the American idioms, which are notwithstanding 

 rich, the moon is commonly enough called the sim of night 

 or even the sun of leep ; but the moon and sun very rarel 

 bear the same name, as among the Macos. I know onl^ 

 a few examples in the most northerly part of America, 

 among the Woccons, the Ojibbeways, the Muskogulges, 

 and the Mohawks.f Our missionary asserted that jama, 

 in Maco, indicated at the same time the Supreme Being, 

 and the great orbs of night and day; while many other 

 American tongues, for instance the Tamanac, and the 

 Caribbee, have distinct words to denote Grod, the Moon, 

 and the Sun. We shall soon see how anxious the mission- 

 aries of the Orinoco are not to employ, in their translations 

 of the prayers of the church, the native words which denote 

 the Divinity, the Creator (Amanene}, the Great Spirit who 

 animates all nature. They choose rather to Indianize the 

 Spanish word Dios, converting it, according to the differ- 

 ences of pronunciation, and the genius of the different 

 dialects, into Dioso, Tiosu, or Piosu. 



When we again embarked on the Orinoco, we found the 

 river free from shoals. After a few hours we passed the 

 Raudal of Grarcita, the rapids of which are easy of ascent, 

 when the waters are In'gh. To the eastward is seen a small 

 chain of mountains called the chain of Cumadamiuari, con- 

 sisting of gneiss, and not of stratified granite. We were 

 struck with a succession of great holes at more than one 

 hundred and eighty feet above the present level of the 

 Orinoco, yet which, notwithstanding, appear to be the effects 

 of the erosion of the waters. We shall see hereafter, that 

 this phenomenon occurs again nearly at the same height, 

 both in the rocks that border the cataracts of Maypures, 

 and fifty leagues to the east, near the mouth of the Rio Jao. 



* The great family of the Esthonian (or Tschoudi) languages, and of 

 the Samoiede languages, affords numerous examples of these differences. 



t Nipia-kmathwa in the Shawuiese (the idiom of Canada), from 

 to sleep, and kiaatlnra } the sun. 



