INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES. J 03 



days in the fonsts. In fact the towns are often almost chap. tx. 

 wholly deserted. As in all scini-barbarous nations, the 

 women are subjected to privation and suffering, the 

 hardest laljour falling to their share. 



The Indians learn Spanish with extreme difficulty ; KnowledRo 

 and, even when they perfectly understand the meaning o^Spaaish. 

 of the words, are unable to express the most simple 

 ideas in that language without embarrassment. They 

 seem to have as little capacity for comprehending any 

 thing belonging to numbers ; the more intelligent count- 

 ing in Spanisli with the appearance of great effort only 

 as far as thirty, or perhaps fifty, while in their own 

 tongue they cannot proceed beyond five or six. The Native 

 construction of the American dialects is so different from dialects, 

 that of the several classes of speech derived from the 

 Latin, that the Jesuits employed some of the more per- 

 fect among the former instead of their own ; and had 

 this system been generally followed the greatest benefit 

 would have resulted from it. The Chayma appeared 

 to Humboldt less agreeable to the ear than that of the 

 other South American tribes. 



The Pariagotos, or Farias, formerly occupied the p^^^^ 

 coasts of Berl)ice and Essequibo, the peninsula of Paria, 

 and the plains of Piritoo and Parima. Little informa- 

 tion, however, is furnished respecting them. 



The Guaraunos are dispersed in the delta of the gj^araunos. 

 Orinoco, and owe their independence to the nature of 

 their country. In order to raise their houses above the 

 inundations of the river, they support them on the 

 trunks of the mangrove and mauritia palm. They 

 make bread of the flour obtained from the pith of the 

 latter tree. Tlieir excellent qualities as seamen, their 

 perfect knowledge of the mouths and inosculations of 

 that magnificent stream, and their great number, give 

 them a certain degree of political importance. They 

 run with great address on marshy ground, v>here the 

 whites, the negroes, or other Indian tribes, will not 

 venture ; and this circumstance has given rise to the 



