NAMES Or CONSTELLATIONS. 
305 
struction of which is entirely different; I may cite as 
examples the G-uarany and the Omagua ,* languages of na- 
tions formeriy ve iy powerful. It may be conceived that, 
th the worship of the stars and of the powers of nature 
w-ords which have a relation to these objects might pass 
»om one idiom to another. I showed the constellation of 
ie bouthem Cross to a Pareni Indian, who covered the 
‘ ntern while I was taking the circum-meridian heights of 
ie stars; and he called it Bahumehi, a name which the 
wibe hsh, or serra sabne, also bears in Pareni. He 
' as ignorant of the name of the belt of Orion ; but a Poig- 
nave Indian, t who knew the constellations better, assured 
ffle that m his tongue the belt of Orion bore the name of 
Z“' ehot; he caUed ^ moon Zenquerot. These two words 
*ave a very peculiar character for words of American origin 
Danles of the constellations may have been trans- 
itted to immense distances from one nation to another 
nese Poignave words have fixed the attention of the learned’ 
iVriVr? ™ a g med ^ey recognize the Phoenician and 
oabite tongues m the word camosi of the Pareni. Fuebot 
na zenquerot seem to remind us of the Phoenician words 
cvm i j r (oak-tree), ephod, &c. But what can we 
iclude from simple terminations which are most fre- 
V'ently foreign to the roots? In Hebrew the feminine 
1 p Urals terminate also in oth. I noted entire phrases in 
oignave ; but the young man whom I interrogated spoke 
a S Ul c that I could not seize the division of the words 
ga should have mixed them confusedly together had I 
tempted to write them do\vn.+ b 
and and T M °°"> i ? Guarany, Quarasi and Jasi; in Omagua, Huarassi 
WnlT A l Sha ‘, 1 J glV ! 1 farther , on > these same words in the principal 
surges of the old and new worlds. (See note at pp. 326-328.) 
°,7r 0C ° the .f 1 ui t'™ ve *’ m Poiynaves, are distinguished from the 
'“Osi.W V a S (Uipunavt). The latter, on account of their language, are 
nailed 7 Id S belonel "S t0 the Maypure and Cabre nations ; yet water is 
* ® “oignare, as well as in Maypure, oueni. 
ArjLT? 8 CU , ri ° US exatn P le of th ‘ a > the speech of Artabanes in 
give /if 1 ®?' \^ c ^ arn ' act scene 3,) where a Greek has attempted to 
h°te 54 T' 3 " " iaUOn ' ® ee Gibbon's Homan Empire, chap, iiii, 
We h,i a cur i° us example of the way in which foreign languages 
tot allv ths % ured when it has been attempted to represent them in a 
y uiuerent tongue. 
V °L. II. 
X 
