TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



^55 



adopt the Portuguese name, which tliey change 

 more or less. Thus they call the horse (cavallo) 

 cavarrit, the key (ckave) shavi^ the clergyman 

 (vigario) uare, &c. To the ox they give the 

 name of one of the animals of their own country, 

 the tapir, tapir a. Their pronouns are quite 

 simple, limited to I, thou, we, mine and thine. 

 Of course there is no such thing as declensions 

 and conjugations, and still less a regular construc- 

 tion of the sentences. They always speak in the 

 infinitive, with, or mostly without, pronouns or 

 substantives. The accent, which is chiefly on the 

 second syllable, the slowness or quickness of pro- 

 nunciation, certain signs with the hand, the mouth, 

 or other gestures, are necessary to complete the 

 sense of the sentence. If the Indian, for instance, 

 means to say, I will go into the wood," he says. 

 Wood-go,'^ pushing out his mouth, to indicate 

 the quarter which he intends to visit. In respect 

 to numbers too, their language is very imperfect. 

 They generally count only by the joints of the 

 fingers, consequently only to three. Every greater 

 number they express by the word manyJ'^ Their 

 calculation of time is equally simple, merely ac- 

 cording to the returning season of the ripening of 

 the fruits, or according to the phases of the moon, 

 of which latter, however, they can express in words 

 only the appearance, without any reference to the 

 causes. It is worthy of the particular attention of 

 the philologer, that with this simplicity of Ian- 



