78 
IIE11ITATI0:S OP THE KAME. 
the Caribs were mentioned in many geographical works ae j 
an extinct race. Writers unacquainted with the interior of i 
the Spanish colonies of the continent, supposed, that the j 
small islands of Dominica, Guadaloupe, and St. Vincent, had [ 
been the principal abodes ot that nation of which the only 1 
vestiges now remaining throughout the whole of the eastern 1 
West India Islands are skeletons petrified, or rather enve- ( 
loped in a limestone containing madrepores.* 
The name of Caribs, which I find for the first time in 
a letter of Peter Martyr d’ Anghiera 'is derived from Galina 
and Caripuna, the I andp being transferred into r and t. It 
is very remarkable, that this name, which Columbus heard 
pronounced by the people of Hayti, was known to exist at 
. the same time among the Caribs of the islands and those of 
the continent. Prom the word Garina, or Galina, has been 
formed Gafiii (Caribi). This is the distinctive denomination 
ot a tribe in French Guiana, t who are of much more dimi- 
nutive stature than the inhabitants of Cari, but speaking one 
of the numerous dialects of the Carib tongue. The inhabi- 
tants of the islands are called Galinago in the language of the 
men ; and in that of the women, Gallipinan. The difference 
in the language of the two sexes is more striking among the 
people of the Carib race, than among other American 
nations (the Omaguas, the Guaranis, and the Chiquitos), 
where it applies only to a limited number of ideas ; for 
instance, the words mother and child. It may be conceived 
that women, from their separate way of life, frame particular 
terms, which men do not adopt. Cicero observes,! that old 
forms of language are best preserved by women, because by 
* These skeletons were discovered in 1805 by M. Cortez. They are 
encased in a formation of madrepore breccia, which the negroes call 
“ God’s masonry,” and which, like the travertin of Italy, envelops 
fragments of vases and other objects created by human skill. M. Dauxion 
Layaysse and Dr. Koenig first made known in Europe this phenomenon, 
which has greatly interested geologists. 
t The Galibis (Calibitis), the Palicours, and the Acoquouas, also cut 
their hair in the style of the monks ; and apply bandages to the legs of 
their children, for the purpose of swelling the muscles. They have the 
same predilection for green stones (sanssuritc), which we observed among 
the Carib nations of the Orinoco. There exist, besides, in French Guiana, 
twenty Indian tribes, which are distinguished from the Galibis. though 
their language proves that they have a common origin, 
f Cicero, de Oral., lib. III. cap. xii. §45, ed. Verburg. “Faciliut 
