425 



bres 3 the Guipunavis, and the Caribbees, have 

 always been more powerful and more civilized* 

 than the other hordes of the Oroonoko ; and yet 

 the former two are as much addicted to anthro- 

 pophagy, as the last are repugnant to it. We 

 must carefully distinguish the different branches, 

 into which the great family of the Caribbee 

 nations is divided. These branches are as nu- 

 merous as those of the Monguls, and the wes- 

 tern Tatars or Turcomans. The Caribbees of 

 the continent, those who inhabit the plains be- 

 tween the Lower Oroonoko, the Rio Branco, 

 the Essequebo, and the sources of the Oyapoc, 

 hold in horror the practice of devouring their 

 enemies. This barbarous custom-^, at the first 



* Non v* e a mi credere, toltone questo vizio di mangiare le 

 umane carni, una nazione piu stimabile di Guipunavi. Hanno 

 un fare Europeo, un aria militare e civile. Gili, torn, ii, 

 p. 45. 



+ See Geraldini Itinerarium, p. 186, and the eloquent tract 

 of cardinal Bembo on the discoveries of Columbus. H Insu- 

 larum partem homines incolebant feri trucesque, qui puero- 

 rum et virorum carnibus, quos aliis in insulis bello aut latro- 

 ciniis cepissent, vescebantur ; a feminis abstinebant, Canibales 

 appellati." {Hist, Ventt.j 1551, p. 83.) The custom of sparing 

 the lives of female prisoners confirms what I have said 

 above, p. 293, of the language of the women. Does the word 

 cannibal, applied to the Caribbees of the West India islands, 

 belong to the language of this Archipelago (that of Haiti) } 

 or must we seek for it in an idiom of Florida, which 

 some traditions indicate as the first country of the Carib- 



