Cap. IX. T^eCaribby-lflands'. i&i 



where they are, becaufe they look on them as their Enemies. 

 And whereas there are in their corrupt Language niany words 

 taken out of the Spanifi, a people whom they alfo account their 

 Enemies, it proceeds hence, that they learn'd them'durrng the 

 time they held a fair correfpondence with that Nation, and be- 

 fore they began to treat them as they afterwards did. 



1$. They are very (hie in communicating their Language, 

 out of a fear the fecrets of their Wars might be difcovered 5 

 nay, thofe among them who have embrac d the Chriftiao Reli- 

 gion, would not be perfwaded to reveal the grounds of their 

 Language, out of a belief it might prejudice their Nation. 



16. We fhall here fet down fome of the moft particular 

 proprieties of their Language : In the firft place, the men have 

 many expreffions proper only to themfelves, which the wo- 

 men underftand well enough, but never pronounce : And the 

 women have alfo their words and phrafes, which if the men 

 fhould ufe they would be laugh'd atjwhehce it comes,that in this 

 Drfcotfrfe one would think the women fpoke a Language dif- 

 ferent from that of the nien, a? will be feen in our Vocabulary, 

 by the difference of expreffions which the men and women 

 make ufe of to fignifie the fame thing : The Savages of Domi- 

 nko affirm, that it proceeds hence, that when the Caribbians 

 came to inhabit thefe Iflands, they were poffefs'd by a Nation 

 of the Armiagues^ whom they abfolutely deftroy'd, fave only 

 the Women , whom they married for the re-peopling of the 

 Country }fo that thofe Women having retain'd their own Lan- 

 guage, taught it their Daughters, and brought them to fpeak 

 as they did 5 which being pra&is'd to the prefent by the Mo- 

 thers towards their •Daughters , their Language came to be 

 different from that of the Men in many things : But the male 

 Children, though they underftand the fpeech of their Mothers 

 and Sifters, do neverthelefs imitate their Fathers and Brethren, 

 and aceuftom themfelves to their Language when they are five 

 or fix years old. To confirm what we have faid concerning 

 the caufe of this difference of Language, it is ajledg'd , That 

 there is fome conformity between the Language of the Aroua- 

 gues who live in the Continent, and that of the Caribbian Wo- 

 men : But it is to be obferv'd, That the Caribbians of the Con- 

 tinent, as well Men as Women, fpeak the fame Language, as 

 having not corrupted it by inter-marriages with ftrange Wo- 

 men. 



1 7. The old men have alfo fome terms particular to them- 

 felves, and certain affected expreffions, not at all us'd by the 

 younger fort of people. 



1 8. The Caribbians have alfo a certain Language which they 

 make ufe of only among themfelves, when they entertain any 

 warlike tvefblutions - 0 itk a very hard kind of fuftian-language* 

 The Women and Maids know nothing of that myfterious Lan- 

 guage, 



