SACRED ISLES IN THE WEST. 107 



lowest diale6ls of the Sanscrit. To my great surprise, I could not find 

 even a single word in it, either derived from the Sanscrit , or any of its 

 dialects, except the names of a few articles of trade, introduced into it, 

 but evidently not belonging to it : whilst there are a great many words 

 obviously derived from the Sanscrit, in the diale6ts of Brasil, Mexico, of 

 the Caribhees, and other tribes living on the eastern shores of America.' 

 In the dialeds of the inland and southern parts of Africa, I could not 

 even trace a single word of Sanscrit derivation, nor in those of the western 

 shores of America. Some of the diale<5ls of Tartary, and Siberia exhibit 

 occasionally a few words of Sanscrit origin ; but these are not numerous, 

 whilst none whatever are to be found in the others. Various etymolo- 

 gies are given of the name of the city of Mexico, the true pronunciation 

 of which is Machico. The most probable is from the Sanscrit Matsya, or 

 Mack'ha, fish ; and, in a derivative form, Matsyaca, and Mach'hica. This 

 word, in the Machico language, is pronounced Medio, and Mechoa. Ac- 

 cording to the learned Abbe' Clavigero, a native of that country, the 

 name of the town and province of Mechoacan signifies the place of fish. 

 In Hindi, Mach'hi-c'hdn'a implies the same, and Mach'hwd-c'hdna, a place 

 of fishermen, or Mechoa-can. In the Mexican tongue Teu-Calli signifies 

 the house or cell of god, in Latin Dei-eel la, which is to be pronouced 

 Dei-kella. Haveli, a house, in Hindi, hovel in English, is pronounced 

 covet, caul or coil in several parts of the peninsula, as in the Tamiili dia- 

 le6l; and Deu-canl, or Deii-zval is the house of god: this well known 

 word is generally pronounced De-wul in India. Teotigudcan, according 

 to Gemelli, signifies also, in that language, the place of god: in Hindi, 

 Devatacd-c'hdnd or Deotd-ca-c'hdnd signifies the same; though never 

 used. They say in India, or rather Persia, But-c'hand, the place of 

 idols, Khand is used in Persia, and in the western parts of India, in 



