IN THE OLDEN TIME. 273 
the mainland; and now their villages are found from 
Belize to Cape Gracios a Dios. 
All along this coast they are of distinct and uniform 
character, to the casual observer differing little from the 
negro type; of good stature, firm, muscular build, and 
powerful limbs, — women as well as men. To one who 
is used to study the physical character'of men, the out¬ 
ward resemblance to the negro is less marked. The hair 
is woolly; but the nose is less flattened, the mouth not so 
wide, nor are the lips so thick. The shoulders are broad, 
but so are the hips ; and the narrow pelvis of the African 
is generally wanting. The fingers have large joints, and 
from the last all the fingers, but especially the thumb, 
taper sharply to the end. The heel is not so projecting, 
and the feet are very broad. Other differences are of 
interest to the student of the human form rather than to 
the public. 
Almost all speak some English, — seldom using the 
baby-talk of the negro, but not always conforming to the 
correct idiom; more familiar still with Spanish, they 
always use their own language in conversation with each 
other. Several grammars and vocabularies of the dialects 
spoken by these islanders and by their namesakes in 
South America have been published (as may be seen in 
the list of books given in the Appendix), but I have not 
studied this language enough to learn the difference, if 
any, between the speech of the yellow and the black tribes. 
The Caribbee has a disagreeable sound, — perhaps by con¬ 
trast to the Spanish; but the syllables -her and bub are 
frequent, and the enunciation is exceedingly rapid, mak¬ 
ing it very difficult for an alien to catch the words. Add 
to this the curious fact that the men and women speak 
18 
