78 DERIVATION OF THE NAME. 



the Caribs were mentioned in many geographical works ag 

 an extinct race. Writers unacquainted with the interior of 

 the Spanish colonies of the continent, supposed, that the 

 small islands of Dominica, Gruadaloupe, and St. Vincent, had 

 been the principal abodes ot that nation of which the only 

 vestiges now remaining throughout the whole of the eastern 

 "West India Islands are skeletons petrified, or rather enve- 

 loped in a limestone containing madrepores.* 



The name of Caribs, which I find for the first time in 

 a letter of Peter Martyr d'Anghiera is derived from Calina 

 and Caripwna, the I and ^? being transferred into r and &. It 

 is very remarkable, that this name, which Columbus heard 

 pronounced by the people of Hayti, was known to exist at 

 the same time among the Caribs of the islands and those of 

 the continent. From the word Oarina, or Calina, has been 

 formed Galibi (Caribi). This is the distinctive denomination 

 of a tribe in French Gruiana,f who are of much more dimi- 

 nutive stature than the inhabitants of Cari, but speaking one 

 of the numerous dialects of the Carib tongue. The inhabi- 

 tants of the islands are called Calinago in the language of the 

 men ; and in that of the women, Callipinan. The difference 

 in the language of the two sexes is more striking among the 

 people of the Carib race, than among other American 

 nations (the Omaguas, the G-uaranis, and the Chiquitos), 

 where it applies only to a limited number of ideas ; for 

 instance, the words mother and child. It may be conceived 

 that women, from their separate way of life, frame particular 

 terms, which men do not adopt. Cicero observes,:}! that old 

 forms of language are best preserved by women, because by 



* These skeletons were discovered in 1805 by M. Cortez. They are 

 encased in a formation of madrepore breccia, which the negroes call 

 " God's masonry," and which, like the travertin of Italy, envelops 

 fragments of vases and other objects created by human skill. M. Dauxion 

 Lavaysse and Dr. Koenig first made known in Europe this phenomenon, 

 which has greatly interested geologists. 



f The Galibis (Calibitis), the Palicours, and the Acoquouas, also cut 

 their hair in the style of the monks ; and apply bandages to the legs of 

 their children, for the purpose of swelling the muscles. They have the 

 same predilection for green stones (saussurite), which we observed among 

 the Carib nations of the Orinoco. There exist, besides, in French Guiana, 

 twenty Indian tribes, which are distinguished from the Galibis, though 

 their language proves that they have a common origin. 



I Cicero, de Orat.,lib. III. cap. xii. 45, ed. Verburg. "Faciliui 



