CHAPTER XVI. 
LANGUAGES. 
The languages and dialects of the people 
#re very defective in words, and especially 
in words by which to express abstract ideas ; 
and hence they fail to give definite ideas of 
quantity, quality, time, distance, number, 
mode, &c; and in the absence of any writ- 
ten language, or standard of language, a 
mongrel speech of English, French and 
Spanish, with various native dialects, has 
obtained, which is better calculated to excite 
laughter often, than to communicate thought. 
To give a description of quantity, they say 
" not much, or little much, or plenty much 
and of quality, they say " good *a little, or 
good too much." Of distancs, "not far, far 
a little, or far too much ;" and by the way of 
the river they say, "so many points," 
( meaning the bends in the river), and the 
traveler is left to find out as he goes along 
whether those bends are the fourth of a mile^ 
or three miles apart. 
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