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peared less agreeable to my ear, than the Ca- 

 ribbee, the Salive, and other languages of the 

 Oroonoko. It has in particular fewer sonorous 

 terminations in accented vowels. We are struck 

 with the frequent repetition of the syllables 

 guaz, ez 9 puec, and pur. We shall soon see 5 

 that these terminations are derived in part 

 from the inflexion of the verb to be ; and from 

 certain prepositions, which are added at the 

 end of words, and which, according to the 

 genius of the American idioms, are incorporat- 

 ed with them. It would be wrong to attribute 

 this rudeness of sounds to the abode of the Chay- 

 mas in the mountains. They are strangers to 

 that temperate climate. They have been led thi- 

 ther by the missionaries ; and it is well known, 

 that, like all the inhabitants of the warm regions, 

 they dreaded what they called the cold of Ca- 

 ripe. I employed myself, during our abode at 

 the hospital of the Capuchins, in forming a 

 small catalogue of Chayma words. I am aware, 

 that languages are much more strongly charac- 

 terized by their structure and grammatical 

 forms; than by the analogy of their sounds and 

 of their roots ; and that this analogy of sounds 

 is sometimes so disfigured in the different dia- 

 lects of the same tongue, as not to be distin- 

 guishable ; for the tribes into which a nation 

 is divided, often designate the same objects by 

 words altogether heterogeneous. Hence it fol- 



