283 



Quaquas. Perhaps these two tribes, which 

 speak almost the same language, travelled to- 

 gether toward the coasts. 



5. The Cumanagotoes, or, according to the 

 pronunciation of the Indians, Cumanacoto, at 

 present to the west of Cumana, in the Missions 

 of Piritoo, where they live by cultivating the 

 ground to the number of more than twenty- 

 six thousand. Their language, like that of the 

 Palenkas, or Palenques, and Guarivas, is be- 

 tween the Tamanack and the Caribbee, but 

 nearer to the former. These are indeed idioms 

 of the same family ; but, if we were to consi- 

 der them as simple dialects, the Latin must 

 be also called a dialect of the Greek, and the 

 Swedish a dialect of the German. When the 

 question arises of the affinity of languages with 

 each other, it ought not to be forgotten, that 

 these affinities may be very differently gradu- 

 ated ; and that it would be to confound every 

 thing, not to distinguish between simple dia- 

 lects, and languages of the same family, The 

 Cumanagotoes, the Tamanacks, the Chaymas, 

 the Guaraons, and the Caribbees, do not un- 

 derstand each other, in spite of the frequent 

 analogy of words and of grammatical structure 

 exhibited in their idioms. The Cumanago- 

 toes inhabited, at the beginning of the sixteenth 

 century, the mountains of the Brigantine and 

 of Parabolata, Father Ruiz Blanco, at first 



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