IOO CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



ascertain if any difference existed between the Indians 

 of the two islands, that I visited^them. 



In Dominica there are but twenty families of pure 

 Caribs ; in St. Vincent less than six ; and but a few, 

 of the older men and women, can speak the original 

 language. In a few years another generation 

 the Carib tongue, as spoken by these insular people, 

 will be a thing of the past, of which there exists but 

 an imperfect record, speaking which there will be no 

 person living. 



The source of my information in Dominica was a 

 woman, who had, I have reason to believe, purer 

 speech than my informant in St. Vincent, who was a 

 man. Humboldt observes, quoting Cicero : " The 

 old forms of language are better preserved by women, 

 because, by their position in society, they are less ex- 

 posed to those vicissitudes of life, change of place and 

 occupation, which tend to corrupt the primitive purity 

 of language among men." 



I found, however, a greater difference than the 

 mere supposition of difference of sex, or the interval 

 of a hundred and fifty miles between their respective 

 habitations, would create. I found, in fact, that this 

 people spoke two dialects, in confirmation of which 

 my vocabulary, from which I can quote but briefly, 

 will testify. For certain things they had two words 

 entirely different. In the construction of sentences, 

 though there would be close analogy, there was a dif- 

 ference in the opening or closing words that was at 

 once noticeable. In the following, for instance, where 

 the woman expresses a wish for a fish for dinner : 

 n JVo<j-/z, hd-ma-gah, 06-do." And the man : "U-i-di, 

 hd-ma-ga, 06-do." Almost invariably, a word com- 



