150 



words have fixed the attention of the learned, 

 who have endeavoured to recognize the Phoeni- 

 cian and Moabite tong ues in the word camosi of 

 the Pareni. Fuebot and Zenquerot seem to 

 remind us of the Phoenician words mot (lutum), 

 ardod (robur), ephot, &c. But what can we con- 

 clude from simple terminations, which are most 

 frequently foreign to the roots f In Hebrew, 

 the feminine plurals terminate also in oth. I 

 noted entire phrases in Poignavi ; but the young 

 man, whom I interrogated, spoke so quick, 

 that I could not seize the division of the words, 

 and should have written them as Aristophanes 

 writes Persian*. 



In reflecting on the names of the missions 

 founded by Spanish monks, we may be led into 

 error with respect to the elements of the popu- 

 lation employed at the period of their founda- 

 tion. The Jesuits led the May pure Indians to 

 Encaramada and Atures, when they construct- 

 ed these two villages ; but the mission of May- 

 pures itself was not founded by an assemblage 

 of the Indians of the same name. This mission 

 consisted originally of Guipunabis, who came 



* See the speech of Artabanes, in Acharn. Act 1, scene 3. 

 I cite this passage, because, like the Poenulus of Plautus, it 

 reminds us in what manner travellers have at all times disfi- 

 gured the languages of the nations they have visited, and the 

 sounds of which they fancied they could express by the 

 letters of their own alphabet. 



