102 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 
well, but never utter; and the women have likewise 
their own words and phrases which the men never use 
except in ridicule. The savages of Dominica relate 
that when they came to live in these islands (the 
Lesser Antilles) they found them in possession of a 
nation of Arowaks, whom they entirely destroyed, 
except the women, whom they married. Thus, the 
women having preserved their own language, taught 
it to their children. Having been practiced until the 
present time, this language remains different in a great 
many respects from that of the men. 
But the boys, after they attain the age of five or 
six, although they well understand the speech of 
their mothers and sisters, follow their fathers and 
elder brothers in the formation of their language. In 
proof of what they relate, they allege that there is 
some resemblance between the language of the female 
Caribs and that of the Arowaks of the main-land 
(South America). 
The Caribs had also a certain form of speech 
which they used among themselves in their councils 
of war, —a gibberish very difficult to understand, of 
which neither the women nor children were permitted 
to have any knowledge; nor even the young men, until 
they had given some proof of their bravery, or of zeal 
in the common quarrels of their country against their 
enemies. Jt is owing to this fact that their designs 
were never prematurely disclosed, and their invasions 
of an enemy’s territory always so unexpected. They 
have in their native tongue few terms of abuse, and 
about the most offensive is: “you are no good,” or, 
“you are no livelier than a turtle.” Again, they have 
no equivalent word for virtue, which even at the present 
