TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 258 



the various animals and plants : and the affinity of 

 such natural objects to each other is frequently 

 indicated in a very expressive manner in the words 

 themselves ; thus, for instance, the Indian names 

 of monkeys and palms were guides to us in ex- 

 amining the genera and species, for almost every 

 species has its particular Indian name. But it 

 would be in vain to seek among them words for the 

 abstract ideas of plant, animal, and the still more 

 abstract notions colour, tone, sex, species, &c., such 

 a generalisation of ideas is found among them only 

 in the frequently used infinitive of the verbs to walk, 

 to eat, to drink, to dance, to see, to hear, &c. 

 They have no conception of the general powers 

 and laws of nature, and therefore cannot express 

 them in words. That the stars are suspended with- 

 out support in the heavens, and circle in the ether, 

 and that the sun is any thing else than a great fire, 

 has probably never occurred to any Indian ; none 

 of them has ever thought that besides the Sun, the 

 Moon, the Great Bear, and Orion, there were other 

 constellations ; that the fixed stars are different from 

 the planets, and the latter from their satellites. Still 

 less have they any words for soul, spirit, and the 

 like, or at the most very indefinite and insufficient 

 terms. The word tupan or tupana, which is met 

 with as the name for God among several of the 

 tribes that are a little more civilised, and by which 

 the Coroados designate the sugar-cane, and other 

 nations the pisang fruit, is justly considered by 



