Macusi Grammar. 
259 
Warraus and .Wapisianas. Their wealtli of language is equally as 
limited as their sphere of ideas : it comprises only what is to hand, only 
what is perceptible through their senses and feelings. Everything 
that relates to the abstract ^s foreign to them, and they possess but 
an exceptionally small number of words for it: the verbal expression 
of abstract ideas is outside their vocabulary. Everything that . they 
first learnt to know through Europeans, particularly the Spaniards, 
has retained the name given it by the people through whom they be- 
came acquainted with it. Such names, with isolated unesseiifcial 
alteration of letter or addition of syllable are common to all the tribes, 
the reason being that they have spread, for the most part, from the one 
that first came to have a knowledge of them. Thus, all the tribes of Guiana 
call money Brata or Blata (silver): paper, Carita, from Carta 
(letter): shirt, linen, cotton, Gamisa-. hat, fiomhrero: shoe,, Zapafo: 
gun, 'Araknhnsa: powder, Cruhora, also Polrom: shot, Piroto also Bala: 
horse, Cavari: cattle, Varcn or Bacca: goat, Cahrifa: pig, PuenJca 
(from Piierka) : fowl, Cariirina. Their pronouns are very simple. 
Personal pronouns among the Macusis are: hure (the h is silent) I: 
hamore, thou: misfirre, he: liana, we: Jianamore, you: hwamore, they. 
The Macusi for instance says: hure Maciisi, I am a Macusi: Jnire piyii^a. 
pvriiranna, T am sick: liiirr i/rnrpc vifavanua , T liave tooth-ache: hamore 
yenepe pii pe<i wanna, thou hast headache. Tlie brevity of language 
was specially noticeable when our interpreter expressed in twenty words 
at most what we had told him in often more than a hundred. The 
correct answer to onr question on every occasion, or the accurate exe- 
cution of our wishes showed that he had rendered an exhaustive 
translation of them. 
'597'. Their letters are a, h, c, e, g, h, i, Jc, ,m.,, n, a, p, r, s, t, w, y 
amongst which it is only difficult to distinguish the r from I. 
598. The nouns possess no declension by case as in Greek or Latin. 
The genitive has much similarity with the English and German, e.g., my 
brother's house, Moyeh yewuh , thy brother's house, Haya Jcong yen'nli, my 
mother's liouse, Mamah yewuh. The dative is expressed by a prefix: I 
go to him, Ipa (to him) ute (I go), and also by a suffix; He goes to 
him, Mis.9ere nte ipa; He says to him, missere ipa tapomong. Accusative, 
I see Mm, moTcr^e yera moya'; I fear kanaima, hanaima po sina napotoai. 
Ablative or case indicating locality. In the house, avfe tamang; I come 
down from the mountain, ioui pai yepu-pure, In connection witli sex 
they distinguish between male and female by prefixing irnrayo (Man) 
or lohori (Woman) : Waiking is a deer,' morayo iraihing a buck, irhorl 
iraihing a doe. A rooster is voraifo cariirina, a hen irhorl rariwinn. 
"Rut there are some exceptions to this rule: 'Arimaragha , the dog, Tuapiii 
the bitch : to these exceptions especially belong certain words that relate 
to kindred. 
599. Their adjectives, mostly derivatives from verbs, are really 
participles. Numerals in several of the tribes only reach to twenty, 
with fingers and toes for a basis, and commence with the fingers. All 
higher numbers are called " plenty " by tliem. Only a few tribes, jjui • 
ticularly the Arawaks, count up to a Imndred, 
Q2. 
