IN ITS LINGUISTIC AND ETHNOLOGICAL RELATIONS. 



435 



similarities with both. "The Arawack and tho Tupi," observes Professor Von Martins, "are alike in their syntax, 

 in their use of tho possessive and personal pronouns, and in their frequent adverbial construction ;" 8 and in a letter 

 written mo shortly before his death, ho remarks, in speaking of the similarity of those three tongues: "Ich bin 

 iiberzeugt dass dioso [die Caribon] cine Elite der Tapis waren, wolehc erst spat auf die Antillen gekommen sind, wo 

 die alto Tupi— Spraohe in kaum erkennbaron Resten iibrig war, als man sic dort aufzeichnete." I take pleasure in 

 bringing forward this opinion of tho great naturalist, not only because it is not expressed so clearly in any of his 

 published writings, but because his authority on this question is of the greatest weight, and because it supports the 

 view which I have elsewhere advanced of the migrations of the Arawack and Carib tribes. 9 Those "hardly recog- 

 nizablo remains of tho Tupi tongue," we shah see belonged also to the ancient Arawack at an epoch when it was 

 loss divergent than it now is from its primitive form. While these South American affinities are obvious, no relation- 

 ship whatever, either verbal or syntactical, exists between the Arawack and the Maya of Yucatan, or tho Chahta- 

 Mvskoki of Florida and the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico. 



As it is thus rendered extremely probable that the Arawack is closely connected with tho great linguistic families 

 of South America, it becomes of prime importance to trace its extension northward, and to determine if it is in any 

 way affined to tho tongues spoken on tho West India Islands, when these wore first discovered. 



The A rawacks of to-day when askod concerning their origin point to tho north, and claim at some not very 

 remote time to have lived at Kairi, an island, by which generic name they mean Trinidad. This tradition is in a 

 measure proved correot by the narrative of Sir Walter Raleigh, who found them living there in 1886, 10 and by the 

 Belgian explorers who in 1508 collected a short vocabulary of their tongue. This oldest monument of the language 

 has sufficient interest to deserve copying and comparing with tho modern dialect. It is as follows : 



Latin. Ajuwack, 1598. 



pater, pilplii, 



mater, saeckce, 



caput, wassijeho, 



auris, wadycke, 



oculus, wackosije, 



nasus, wassyerii, 



os, dalerooke, 



dentes, darii, 



crura,, dadane, 



pedes, dackosye, 



arbor, hada, 



ai'OUS, semarape, 



sagittse, symare, 



lima, cattehel, 



sol, adaly, 



The syllables wot, our, and da my, prefixed to the parts of the human body, will readily be recognized. When it 

 is remembered that the dialect of Trinidad no doubt differed slightly from that on the mainland; that tho modern 

 Orthography is German and that of De Laet's list is Dutch ; and that two centuries intervened between the first 

 and second, it is really a matter of surprise to discover such a close similarity. Father and mother, the only two 

 words which are not identical, are doubtless different expressions, relationship in this, as in most native tongues, 

 being indicated with excessive minuteness. 



The chain of islands which extend from Trinidad to Porto Rico were called, from their inhabitants, tho Caribby 

 islands. The Caribs, however, made no pretonco to have occupied them for any great length of time. They dis- 



B Ethnographic, etc., B. I., S. 714. 



» TU M,,th* of the New World ■ a Treatise, on the SymbolUm and )h/lhoh ;n , of the lied Itaee of America, p. 32 (New York, 1868). 

 in The DUeottHl of Suiana, )> 1 (Haokluyt, Soo., London, 1842). 



Auawack, 1800. 

 itti. 

 uju. 

 waseye. 

 wadihy. 

 wakusi. 

 wasiri. 

 daliroko. 

 dari. 



dadaanah. 

 dakuty. 

 adda. 



semaara-haaba. 

 semaara. 

 katsi. 

 hadalli. 



