I0o 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 ¢wo dialects, ig 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: 
“WVo06-iz, hd-ma-gah, o6-do.” And the man: “ U-1-p1, 
hd-ma-ga, 06-do.” Almost invariably, a word com- 
