302 THE MAYPU11E TONGUE. 



which appear to me at least very problematical. The god 

 of the Moabites, Chemosh, or Camosch, who has so wearied 

 the patience of the learned; Apollo Chomens, cited by 

 Strabo and by Ammianus Marcellinus; Belphegor; Amun 

 or Haraon ; and Adonis : all, without doubt, represent the 

 sun in the winter solstice ; but what can we conclude from 

 si solitary and fortuitous resemblance of sounds in languages 

 that have nothing besides in common? 



The Maypure tongue is still spoken at Atures, although 

 the mission is inhabited only by G-uahibos and Macos. A t 

 Maypures the Guareken and Pareni tongues only are now 

 spoken. Erom the Bio Anaveni, which falls into the 

 Orinoco north of Atures, as far as beyond Jao, and to the 

 mouth of the Guaviare (between the fourth and sixth 

 degrees of latitude), we everywhere find rivers, the termi- 

 nation of which, veni* recalls to mind the extent to which 

 the Maypure tongue heretofore prevailed. Veni, or weni, 

 signifies water, or a river. The words camosi and keri, 

 which we have just cited, are of the idiom of the Pareni 

 Indians,f who, I think I have heard from the natives, 

 lived originally on the banks of the Mataveni.J The Abbe 

 Gili considers the Pareni as a simple dialect of the May- 

 pure. This question cannot be solved by a comparison of 

 the roots merely. Being totally ignorant of the gram- 

 matical structure of the Pareni, I can raise but feeble 

 doubts against the opinion of the Italian missionary. The 

 Pareni is perhaps a mixture of two tongues that belong to 

 different families ; like the Maquiritari, which is composed 

 of the Maypure and the Caribbee ; or, to cite an example 

 better known, the modern Persian, which is allied at the 

 same time to the Sanscrit and to the Semitic tongues. The 



* Anaveni, Mataveni, Maraveni, &c. 



t Or Parenas, who must not be confounded either with the Paravenei 

 of the Rio Caura (Caulin, p. 69), or with the Parecas, whose languag 

 belongs to the great family of the Tamanac tongues. A young Indian ot- 

 Maypures, who called himself a Paragini, answered my questions almost 

 in the same words that M. Bonpland heard from a Pareni. I have 

 indicated the differences in the table, see pp. 303-4. 



J South of the Rio Zanaa, We slept in the open air near the mouth 

 of the Mataveni on the 28th day of May, in our rsturo from the Rio 



