On the Aborigines of Brazil. 21 



and finds no inducement to develop his natural powers to 

 a state of greater variety and freedom.* 



Language. 

 Their language, as being the most intellectual expression 

 of the soul, that can take place through the medium of the 

 body, deserves at least a few words of remark. I do not 

 profess to ascribe to the dialects, which I have observed 

 among the Brazilian aborigines, the same character that 

 Duponceau gives to the North American languages, when he 

 calls them poly synthetic and poly syntactic. Many different 

 ideas are expressed at once in the shortest possible manner 

 by the union of single verbal symbols, inasmuch as those 

 individual symbols are connected with each other, not only 

 in their general connexion (totalitdt,) but often as it were 

 interwoven in their roots. Thus the condition of the sub- 

 ject is indicated not solely by its predicate, but by an 

 accent according to its connexion, state, number, place, 

 time, 8fc, as the verb experiences certain peculiar in- 

 flexions, augments, and alterations of vowels, and sharp- 

 enings of accent. Thus long words are formed from a few 

 broken syllables \\ and are equivalent to whole sentences 

 in those languages, which are by some grammarians termed 

 analytic, as the German, or synthetic, as the Greek and 

 Latin. The best marked character of the languages of the 

 Brazilians, appears to me to consist in this, that they make the 

 most varied use of the organs of speechj, while they not only 



* If a good deal of this account be not founded on the prejudices of the early 

 authors, against which we were cautioned in the introduction, the South American 

 Indian must be indeed a degenerate type of the human family. — Tr. 



f For instance, Schoolcraft says, that the word kuligatschis, means "give your 

 pretty little paw." The word is as it were agglutinated, or made up of h, the 

 second personal pronoun : uli part of the word wulet, pretty : gat, part of the word 

 tvichgat signifying a paw : schis conveying the idea of littleness. — Tr. 



% I am told, that among the Khonds of Goomsur, certain words bear opposite 

 significations according as they are expired or inspired; a very singular fact ! I* 

 it known to occur in other languages ?•— Tr. 



