Divisions of Time. 
261 
Banoina is miduiglit; Evhnuimi icinald, at sunrise; Akapita criniajniif 
the dawn. Intervals are expressed by pointing to a certain spot in the 
heavens and at the same time saying : " when the sun was there," " when 
the sun stands there,'' etc. The night is split into three parts. 
Tlie first includes what we call evening: the second they dis- 
tinguish by the Avords " when they all sleep " — this is the long- 
est stage. The third is called the time of the cock-crow, at 
least this is what the Indian noAV calls the hours before sunrise, where 
fowls have l)ecome common. They have only a few special names 
among the heavenly bodies and constellations. The sun Wae^ the moon 
Knpoi, the stars ^irikc, the scorpion Maritc (also the name of the in- 
secl ), the seven stars (Pleiades) Ta-nnikaiif/, the Milky Way Parano, 
[Parana also means the sea, and hence ParanagMcri, people who have 
come from over the sea), the evening star Kai-irono (wife of the moon, 
not only because Venus shines brightest amongst all other stars, and 
even throws a shadow, but because she is pretty well always to be found 
in his neighbourhood), and shooting stars Wai-tainia. Sun, moon and 
stars are regarded as living creatures, and hence dew is Sirike itahii, the 
urine or spittle of a star. If they wish to describe the distance lietAveen 
one place and another, they express it by the number of nights they 
would have to sto]i on the Avay there.' If the i^lace is distant a five dnys 
journey, one says: " I shall sleep four times during the journey, and then 
arrive at the place." If the distance does not cover a complete day they 
express it in a peculiar way liy the word JTop-pah : wliile pausiug long 
on the first syllable they descrilie with the hand the course of the sun as 
far as the zenith, and then with the second pnJi, move the hand to the 
spot where the sun will be when one arrives there: and when the word 
is finally uttered in its entirety they strike their l»reast. Another 
peculiar custom among the INlacusis is that so soon as tlie new moon is 
visiltle, all the men stand in front of tlie doors (»f theic h(»iis< s. and at 
sh(»rt intervals stretch theii- arms forwards and backwards from it: they 
become invigorated for hunting by this nu-ans. 
002. These are the scanty crumlis that T liave been able to gather 
concerning the langnage of a feA\' trilies in general: the vocal)ularies 
included in the appendix will at least somewhat complete the memoranda 
given. 
GOo. It would seem c(uneni('nt to add hei-e certain remarks con- 
cerning tlie fabled vii'agoes, Ihe Amazons, and the equally celebrated 
real Amazon stones, although wliat we have to say as the result 
ol' our own invest igat ions is nothing new at all, it only consisting of a 
repetition of whole, sei-ies of h^gends that have come down to us from 
classical times, and like the g(M)gra]>hical situation of El Dorado have 
wandered throngh almost every clime. Alexandei- von Hnmbohlt rightly 
says: ''The myth Ijelongs to one of those unif(U'm and natural cycle of 
reveries and ideas with which in all ages the poetical and religious 
fancy of mankind is almost instinctively s\vaye<l. Cliristopher Columbus 
had liardly discovered the Lesser Antilles at the end of his first voyage 
than he imagined he was already in the neighbourhood of an island, 
Matinino (St. Lucia), which was only inhabited by women (Navarrete, 
