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whole knowledge of the Chilian language may be 

 i^aid to consist in the management of the verbs. 

 The relatives, the pronouns, the prepositions, the 

 adverbs, the numerals, and in fine all the other par- 

 ticles as well as the nouns are subject to this meta- 

 morphosis, as ckiu, whatf chiumen, what's to be 

 done ? mivu^ how many ? mivui, how many are 

 they ? eimimolan, I have lio occasion for you ; min- 

 che, under, minchen, to be under ; meli, four, melin^ 

 to be four ; doy, more, doin, to be more ; vem, like, 

 vemen, to be like another. 



Proper names are also susceptible of this elegance. 

 Thus from Pedro, is formed the verb petron, to be 

 Pedro ; Petrobui, Vv^as Pedro. In consequence of 

 this singular variation, the substantives and adjec- 

 tives produce some very curious verbs ; as from 

 pulli or pullu, the soul, is derived pullun, to apply 

 the whole soul, to pay the greatest attention ; in like 

 manner from then, time comes, thenen, to arrive in 

 time ; from re, pure, relen, to do only one thing, 

 &c. Owing to this property the translation of 

 European works into the Chilian is very easy, in 

 which, instead of losing any of their spirit and ele- 

 gance, they acquire a degree of precision even su- 

 perior to the originals. This, among other instan- 

 ces that might be mentioned, is strongly evinced in 

 the Christian Thoughts of the celebrated Bouhours, 

 which was translated in the year seventeen hundred 

 and thirteen. There can be no better test of a lan- 

 guage than its translations, as its comparative rich- 

 ness or poverty is rendered more apparent in this 

 mode than in any other. 



