302 
THE MAYPURE TONGUE. 
which appear to me at least very problematical. The god 
of the 31oabites, Chemosh, or Camosch, who has so wearied 
the patience of the learned ; Apollo Chomens, cited by 
Strabo and by Ammianus Marcellinns ; Belphegor ; Annin 
or Haiuon ; and Adonis : all, without doubt, represent the 
sun in the winter solstice ; but what can we conclude from 
a solitary and fortuitous resemblance of sounds in languages 
that have nothing besides in common ? 
The Maypure tongue is still spoken at Atures, although 
the mission is inhabited only by Guahibos and Macos. At 
Maypures the Guareken and Pareni tongues only are now 
spoken. Prom the Rio Anaveni, which falls into the 
Orinoco north of Atures, as far as beyond Jao, and to the 
mouth of the Guaviare (between the fourth and sixth 
degrees of latitude), we everywhere find rivers, the termi- 
nation of which, veni* recalls to mind the extent to which 
the Maypure tongue heretofore prevailed. Veni, or went, 
signifies water, or a river. The words ccmosi and Jceri, 
which we have just cited, are of the idiom of the Pareni 
Indians, t who, I think I have heard from the natives, 
lived originally on the banks of the Mataveni.J The Abbe 
Gili considers the Pareni as a simple dialect of the May- 
pure. This question cannot be solved by a comparison of 
the roots merely. Being totally ignorant of the gram- 
matical structure of the Pareni, I can raise but feeble 
doubts against the opinion of the Italian missionary. Th e 
Pareni is perhaps a mixture of two tongues that belong b? 
different families ; like the Maquiritari, which is composed 
of the Maypure and the Caribbee ; or, to cite an example 
better known, tbe modem Persian, which is allied at the 
same time to the Sanscrit and to the Semitic tongues. The 
* Anaveni, Mataveni, Maraveni, &c. 
+ Or Parenas, who must not be confounded either with the Paravene* 
of the Rio Caura (Catilin, p. 09), or with the Parecas, whose language 
belongs to the great family of the Tamanac tongues. A young Indian 
Maypures, who called himself a Parayini , answered my questions alm° st 
in the same words that M. Bonpland heard from a Pareni. 1 ha* 6 
indicated the differences in the table, see pp. 303-4. 
J South of the Rio Zama. We slept in the open air near the mouth 
of the Mataveni on the 2Sth day of May, in our return from the Rio Neg 1 ®' 
