ion THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA RIVERS. 
On the Igua.'ssii, one of tlie mighty affluents of the Parana, there still 
are a few Avild, little-known tribes Imng side by side with the sparse 
population of civilised cattle breeders. The Gorman colonists of 
Blnmenan, them eastern neighbours, include them under the Portuguese 
name of Bugres, while the Brazilians falsely call them Botocudos. 
Driven into straits upon all sides, and particularly aA^erse to friendly 
intercourse Avith the AAdiite race, they retire farther and farther ; and, as 
the progress of cultivation depriAms them of one tract of wood or rich 
carapo after another, they protest in their oavu fashion, either by a sudden 
night-attack or by one of these puzzling proclamations. Thus, a few 
years ago, Avhen the Iguassii was getting a little livelier Avith trade, they 
set up a long bamboo in a conspicuous spot on its shore, AAuth a big 
bundle of feathers, bones, &c., AvaA^ing at the top like a huge searecroAV. 
tJntortxinately the floods had carried all off some time before we passed 
there, and so wc were deprived of the pleasure of trying our wits at the 
strange riddle. 
In the same drastic way, in ages long gone by, the nations of Asia 
must have Avritten them first letters, until the palpable symbols AA-'ere 
supplanted by images and signs, Avhich in their turn were replaced by 
syllables and letters Avith the higher gifted races and tribes. 
If by the words of Goethe — 
“ So wil’d erst imcli and nach die Siirache test geraminelt. 
IJnd was ein Volk zusammen sick gestammelt, 
Muss ewiges Gesetz fiir Herz imd Seele sein,” 
the sounds arc meant in the first place, yet the process of slow “ fest 
rammeln ” is the same for the tvritlen language ; and those first 
“ stammerings ” of any nation are not devoid of interest. 
Are not the sounds and the visible signs for them so closely linked 
that it seems as if a language cannot rise beyond a certain degree of 
development if the letters do not come to its aid ? The American 
languages, above all, cause such thoughts to arise. They all are poly- 
■synthetieal, that is, formed by agglutination, or a loose adding of 
formal elements to the word-root. 
Martius says, in the Portuguese preface to his “Yocabulary of 
Brazilian Languages:” — “The monosyllable or bisyllable radical words 
of these languages are loosely put together to exj)ress a more or less 
complicated notion. Yet, in all of them, are missing the flexions 
