236 The Hiftory of Book II. 



harveft, and after they had made their Offerings to the Sun 

 upon the Mountain of oUimi 3 but now they have no fet and 

 appointed time for thefe divertifements. 



Their voice is naturally good, mild, flexible, and pleafant 3 

 whence it comes that many among them make it their endea- 

 vour to imitate the finging and chirping of Birds 3 wherein 

 they are for the moft part fo fortunate, that like fo many Or- 

 pheus s they entice out of the woods to follow them, thofe 

 Birds which think they hear only thole of their own fpeciesi 

 They doalfo by finging alleviate the hard labour they are ad- 

 dicted unto, and yet what they do, feems to be done rather 

 out of divertifement, and to avoid idlenefs, than out of any 

 confideration of advantage that they make thereof. 



Their Language is very fmooth, and very plentiful in com* 

 parifons : That fpoken by the Captains and all perfons of 

 quality,is more elegant and fuller of flourifhes than that of the 

 common fort of people : Their expreffions are very precife, 

 and their periods (hort enough .* While they are yet children, 

 they learn feveral fongs, made by the Jaouas in honour and 

 commendation of the Sun 3 they are alfo acquainted with fe- 

 veral othei^ little pieces of Poetry, wherein they have com- 

 prehended thejnoft memorable exploits of their Kings, out of 

 a defign 10 perpetuate the memory thereof among them, and 

 the more eafily tranfmit it to their pofterity. 



All the Provinces which acknowledge the King of A$tU~ 

 cha for their Sovereign, underftand the language commonly 

 ipoken in his Court 3 yet does not this hinder but that each 

 of them hath a particular dialect of its own, whence it comes 

 that the language of fome, is in fome things different from that 

 of others of the Inhabitants / The Provinces of Amana and 

 Matica, in which there are to this day many Caribbian Fami- 

 lies, have retained to this prefent many words of the ancient 

 idiome of thefe people, which confirms what we have laid 

 down for a certain affertion, to wit, that being known by the 

 fame name, and having many expreffiom common to them with 

 the Inhabitants of the Caribbji-liiands, thofe Families have alfo 

 the fame origine with them, as we have reprefented in the pre- 

 cedent chapter. 



They heretofore adored the Sun, and had their Priefts, 

 whom they called Jaouas 9 who were very fuperftitious in ren- 

 dring to him the fervice which they had invented in honopr of' 

 him.* their perfwafion was, that the raies of the Sun gave life 

 to all thingS3 that they dried up the earth$ and that once the 

 Sun having continued four and twenty hours under an eclipfe, 

 the earth had been overflow^ and that the great Lake which 

 they call Theomi^ was rais'd as high as the tops of the higheft 

 Mountains that encompafs it 3 but that the Sun having reco- 

 vered the eclipfe, had, by his prefence ? fore'd the waters to 



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