Part 2

They--seeing (_addin_ to see, gerund) the--people Paulus what--had been done (_anin_ to do, _anissia_ to have been done), loudly they called altogether the--Lycaonia speech in, thus, The--gods (present participle of _amallitin_ to make; the same appellation which the ancient Greeks gave to poets, [Greek: poiêtai] makers, the Arawacks applied to the divine powers) men like, us to now (_buté_ nota præsentis) are--come--down from--above--down--here ourselves because--of.

AFFILIATIONS OF THE ARAWACK.

The Arawacks are essentially of South American origin and affiliations. The earliest explorers of the mainland report them as living on the rivers of Guiana, and having settlements even south of the Equator.[5] De Laet in his map of Guiana locates a large tribe of "Arowaceas" three degrees south of the line, on the right bank of the Amazon. Dr. Spix during his travels in Brazil met with fixed villages of them near Fonteboa, on the river Solimoes and near Tabatinga and Castro d'Avelaes.[6] They extended westward beyond the mouth of the Orinoco, and we even hear of them in the province of Santa Marta, in the mountains south of Lake Maracaybo.[7]

While their language has great verbal differences from the Tupi of Brazil and the Carib, it has also many verbal similarities with both. "The Arawack and the Tupi," observes Professor Von Martius, "are alike in their syntax, in their use of the possessive and personal pronouns, and in their frequent adverbial construction;"[8] and in a letter written me shortly before his death, he remarks, in speaking of the similarity of these three tongues: "Ich bin überzeugt dass diese [die Cariben] eine Elite der Tupis waren, welche erst spät auf die Antillen gekommen sind, wo die alte Tupi--Sprache in kaum erkennbaren Resten übrig war, als man sie dort aufzeichnete." I take pleasure in bringing forward this opinion of the great naturalist, not only because it is not expressed so clearly in any of his published writings, but because his authority on this question is of the greatest weight, and because it supports the view which I have elsewhere advanced of the migrations of the Arawack and Carib tribes.[9] These "hardly recognizable remains of the Tupi tongue," we shall see belonged also to the ancient Arawack at an epoch when it was less divergent than it now is from its primitive form. While these South American affinities are obvious, no relationship whatever, either verbal or syntactical, exists between the Arawack and the Maya of Yucatan, or the Chahta-Mvskoki of Florida and the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico.

As it is thus rendered extremely probable that the Arawack is closely connected with the great linguistic families of South America, it becomes of prime importance to trace its extension northward, and to determine if it is in any way affined to the tongues spoken on the West India Islands, when these were first discovered.

The Arawacks of to-day when asked concerning their origin point to the north, and claim at some not very remote time to have lived at _Kairi_, an island, by which generic name they mean Trinidad. This tradition is in a measure proved correct by the narrative of Sir Walter Raleigh, who found them living there in 1595,[10] and by the Belgian explorers who in 1598 collected a short vocabulary of their tongue. This oldest monument of the language has sufficient interest to deserve copying and comparing with the modern dialect. It is as follows:

LATIN. ARAWACK, 1598. ARAWACK, 1800. pater, pilplii, itti. mater, saeckee, uju. caput, wassijehe, waseye. auris, wadycke, wadihy. oculus, wackosije, wakusi. nasus, wassyerii, wasiri. os, dalerocke, daliroko. dentes, darii, dari. crura, dadane, dadaanah. pedes, dackosye, dakuty. arbor, hada, adda. arcus, semarape, semaara-haaba. sagittæ, symare, semaara. luna, cattehel, katsi. sol, adaly, hadalli.

The syllables _wa_ our, and _da_ my, prefixed to the parts of the human body, will readily be recognized. When it is remembered that the dialect of Trinidad no doubt differed slightly from that on the mainland; that the modern orthography is German and that of De Lact's[TN-4] list is Dutch; and that two centuries intervened between the first and second, it is really a matter of surprise to discover such a close similarity. Father and mother, the only two words which are not identical, are doubtless different expressions, relationship in this, as in most native tongues, being indicated with excessive minuteness.

The chain of islands which extend from Trinidad to Porto Rico were called, from their inhabitants, the Caribby islands. The Caribs, however, made no pretence to have occupied them for any great length of time. They distinctly remembered that a generation or two back they had reached them from the mainland, and had found them occupied by a peaceful race, whom they styled _Ineri_ or _Igneri_. The males of this race they slew or drove into the interior, but the women they seized for their own use. Hence arose a marked difference between the languages of the island Caribs and their women. The fragments of the language of the latter show clearly that they were of Arawack lineage, and that the so-called Igneri were members of that nation. It of course became more or less corrupted by the introduction of Carib words and forms, so that in 1674 the missionary De la Borde wrote, that "although there is some difference between the dialects of the men and women, they readily understand each other;"[11] and Father Breton in his Carib Grammar (1665) gives the same forms for the declensions and conjugations of both.

As the traces of the "island Arawack," as the tongue of the Igneri may be called, prove the extension of this tribe over all the Lesser Antilles, it now remains to inquire whether they had pushed their conquests still further, and had possessed themselves of the Great Antilles, the Bahama islands, and any part of the adjacent coasts of Yucatan or Florida.

All ancient writers agree that on the Bahamas and Cuba the same speech prevailed, except Gomara, who avers that on the Bahamas "great diversity of language" was found.[12] But as Gomara wrote nearly half a century after those islands were depopulated, and has exposed himself to just censure for carelessness in his statements regarding the natives,[13] his expression has no weight. Columbus repeatedly states that all the islands had one language though differing, more or less, in words. The natives he took with him from San Salvador understood the dialects in both Cuba and Haiti. One of them on his second voyage served him as an interpreter on the southern shore of Cuba.[14]

In Haiti, there was a tongue current all over the island, called by the Spaniards _la lengua universal_ and _la lengua cortesana_. This is distinctly said by all the historians to have been but very slightly different from that of Cuba, a mere dialectic variation in accent being observed.[15] Many fragments of this tongue are preserved in the narratives of the early explorers, and it has been the theme for some strange and wild theorizing among would-be philologists. Rafinesque christened it the "Taino" language, and discovered it to be closely akin to the "Pelasgic" of Europe.[16] The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg will have it allied to the Maya, the old Norse or Scandinavian, the ancient Coptic, and what not. Rafinesque and Jegor von Sivors[17] have made vocabularies of it, but the former in so uncritical, and the latter in so superficial a manner, that they are worse than useless.

Although it is said there were in Haiti two other tongues in the small contiguous provinces of Macorix de arriba and Macorix de abajo, entirely dissimilar from the _lengua universal_ and from each other, we are justified in assuming that the prevalent tongue throughout the whole of the Great Antilles and the Bahamas, was that most common in Haiti. I have, therefore, perused with care all the early authorities who throw any light upon the construction and vocabulary of this language, and gathered from their pages the scattered information they contain. The most valuable of these authorities are Peter Martyr de Angleria, who speaks from conversations with natives brought to Spain by Columbus, on his first voyage,[18] and who was himself, a fine linguist, and Bartolomé de las Casas. The latter came as a missionary to Haiti, a few years after its discovery, was earnestly interested in the natives, and to some extent acquainted with their language. Besides a few printed works of small importance, Las Casas left two large and valuable works in manuscript, the _Historia General de las Indias Occidentales_, and the _Historia Apologetica de las Indias Occidentals_. A copy of these, each in four large folio volumes, exists in the Library of Congress, where I consulted them. They contain a vast amount of information relating to the aborigines, especially the _Historia Apologetica_, though much of the author's space is occupied with frivolous discussions and idle comparisons.

In later times, the scholar who has most carefully examined the relics of this ancient tongue, is Señor Don Estevan Richardo, a native of Haiti, but who for many years resided in Cuba. His views are contained in the preface to his _Diccionario Provincial casi-razonado de Voces Cubanas_, (Habana, 2da ed, 1849). He has found very many words of the ancient language retained in the provincial Spanish of the island, but of course in a corrupt form. In the vocabulary which I have prepared for the purpose of comparison, I have omitted all such corrupted forms, and nearly all names of plants and animals, as it is impossible to identify these with certainty, and in order to obtain greater accuracy, have used, when possible, the first edition of the authors quoted, and in most instances, given under each word a reference to some original authority.

From the various sources which I have examined, the alphabet of the _lengua universal_ appears to have been as follows: a, b, d, e, (rarely used at the commencement of a word), g, j, (an aspirated guttural like the Catalan j, or as Peter Martyr says, like the Arabic ch), i (rare), l (rare), m, n, o (rare,) p, q, r, s, t, u, y. These letters, it will be remembered, are as in Spanish.

The Spanish sounds z, ce, ci (English th,) ll, and v, were entirely unknown to the natives, and where they appear in indigenous words, were falsely written for l and b. The Spaniards also frequently distorted the native names by writing x for j, s, and z, by giving j the sound of the Latin y, and by confounding h, j, and f, as the old writers frequently employ the h to designate the _spiritus asper_, whereas in modern Spanish it is mute.[19]

Peter Martyr found that he could reduce all the words of their language to writing, by means of the Latin letters without difficulty, except in the single instance of the guttural j. He, and all others who heard it spoken, describe it as "soft and not less liquid than the Latin," "rich in vowels and pleasant to the ear," an idiom "simple, sweet, and sonorous."[20]

In the following vocabulary I have not altered in the least the Spanish orthography of the words, and so that the analogy of many of them might at once be preceived,[TN-5] I have inserted the corresponding Arawack expression, which, it must be borne in mind, is to be pronounced by the German alphabet.

VOCABULARY OF THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF THE GREAT ANTILLES.

Aji, red pepper. Arawack, _achi_, red pepper.

Aon, dog (Las Casas, Hist. Gen. lib. I, c. 120). Island Ar. _ánli_, dog.

Arcabuco, a wood, a spot covered with trees (Oviedo, Hist. Gen. de las Indias, lib. VI, c,[TN-6] 8). Ar. _arragkaragkadin_ the swaying to and fro of trees.

Areito, a song chanted alternately by the priests and the people at their feasts. (Oviedo, Hist. Gen. lib. V, c. 1.) Ar. _aririn_ to name, rehearse.

Bagua, the sea. Ar. _bara_, the sea.

Bajaraque, a large house holding several hundred persons. From this comes Sp. _barraca_, Eng. _barracks_. Ar. _bajü_, a house.

Bajari, title applied to sub-chiefs ruling villages, (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. cap. 120). Probably "house-ruler," from Ar. _bajü_, house.

Barbacoa, a loft for drying maize, (Oviedo, Hist. Gen. lib. VII, cap. 1). From this the English barbacue. Ar. _barrabakoa_, a place for storing provisions.

Batay, a ball-ground; bates, the ball; batey, the game. (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. c. 204). Ar. _battatan_, to be round, spherical.[21]

Batea, a trough. (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. c. 241.)

Bejique, a priest. Ar. _piaye_, a priest.

Bixa, an ointment. (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. cap. 241.)

Cai, cayo, or cayco, an island. From this the Sp. _cayo_, Eng. _key_, in the "Florida keys." Ar. _kairi_, an island.

Caiman, an alligator, Ar. _kaiman_, an alligator, lit. to be strong.

Caona or cáuni, gold. (Pet. Martyr, Decad. p. 26, Ed. Colon, 1564). Ar. _kaijaunan_, to be precious, costly.

Caracol, a conch, a univalve shell. From this the Sp. _caracol_. (Richardo, Dicc. Provin. s. v). Probably from Galibi _caracoulis_, trifles, ornaments. (See Martius, Sprachenkunde, B. II, p. 332.)

Caney or cansi, a house of conical shape.

Canoa, a boat. From this Eng. _canoe_. Ar. _kannoa_, a boat.

Casique, a chief. This word was afterwards applied by Spanish writers to the native rulers throughout the New World. Ar. _kassiquan_ (from _ussequa_, house), to have or own a house or houses; equivalent, therefore, to the Eng. landlord.

Cimu or simu, the front, forehead; a beginning. (Pet. Martyr, Decad. p. 302.) Ar. _eme_ or _uime_, the mouth of a river, _uimelian_, to be new.

Coaibai, the abode of the dead.

Cohóba, the native name of tobacco.

Conuco, a cultivated field. (Oviedo, Hist. Gen. lib. VII, cap. 2.)

Duhos or duohos, low seats (unas baxas sillas, Las Casas, Hist. Gen. lib. I, cap[TN-7] 96. Oviedo, Hist. Gen. lib. V. cap. 1. Richardo, _sub voce_, by a careless reading of Oviedo says it means images). Ar. _dulluhu_ or _durruhu_, a seat, a bench.

Goeiz, the spirit of the living (Pane, p. 444); probably a corruption of _Guayzas_. Ar. _akkuyaha_, the spirit of a living animal.

Gua, a very frequent prefix: Peter Martyr says, "Est apud eos articulus et pauca sunt regum praecipue nominum quae non incipiant ab hoc articulo _gua_." (Decad. p. 285.) Very many proper names in Cuba and Hayti still retain it. The modern Cubans pronounce it like the English w with the _spiritus lenis_. It is often written _oa_, _ua_, _oua_, and _hua_. It is not an article, but corresponds to the _ah_ in the Maya, and the _gue_ in the Tupi of Brazil, from which latter it is probably derived.[22]

Guaca, a vault for storing provisions.

Guacabiua, provisions for a journey, supplies.

Guacamayo, a species of parrot, macrocercus tricolor.

Guanara, a retired stop. (Pane, p. 444); a species of dove, columba zenaida (Richardo, S. V.)[TN-8]

Guanin, an impure sort of gold.

Guaoxeri, a term applied to the lowest class of the inhabitants (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. cap. 197.) Ar. _wakaijaru_, worthless, dirty, _wakaijatti lihi_, a worthless fellow.

Guatiao, friend, companion (Richardo). Ar. _ahati_, companion, playmate.

Guayzas, masks or figures (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. cap. 61). Ar. _akkuyaha_, living beings.

Haba, a basket (Las Casas, Hist. Gen. lib. III, cap. 21). Ar. _habba_, a basket.

Haiti, stony, rocky, rough (Pet. Martyr, Decades). Ar. _aessi_ or _aetti_, a stone.

Hamaca, a bed, hammock. Ar. _hamaha_, a bed, hammock.

Hico, a rope, ropes (Oviedo, Hist. Gen. lib. V, cap. 2).

Hobin, gold, brass, any reddish metal. (Navarrete Viages, I, p. 134, Pet. Martyr, Dec. p. 303). Ar. _hobin_, red.

Huiho, height. (Pet. Martyr, p. 304). Ar. _aijumün_, above, high up.

Huracan, a hurricane. From this Sp. _huracan_, Fr. _ouragan_, German _Orkan_, Eng. _hurricane_. This word is given in the _Livre Sacré des Quichès_ as the name of their highest divinity, but the resemblance may be accidental. Father Ximenes, who translated the _Livre Sacrè_, derives the name from the Quiché _hu rakan_, one foot. Father Thomas Coto, in his Cakchiquel Dictionary, (MS. in the library of the Am. Phil. Soc.) translates _diablo_ by _hurakan_, but as the equivalent of the Spanish _huracan_, he gives _ratinchet_.

Hyen, a poisonous liquor expressed from the cassava root. (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. cap. 2).

Itabo, a lagoon, pond. (Richardo).

Juanna, a serpent. (Pet. Martyr, p. 63). Ar. _joanna_, a lizard; _jawanaria_, a serpent.

Macana, a war club. (Navarrete, Viages.[TN-9] I, p. 135).

Magua, a plain. (Las Casas, Breviss. Relat. p. 7).

Maguey, a native drum. (Pet. Martyr, p. 280).

Maisi, maize. From this Eng. _maize_, Sp. _mais_, Ar. _marisi_, maize.

Matum, liberal, noble. (Pet. Martyr, p. 292).

Matunheri, a title applied to the highest chiefs. (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. cap. 197).

Mayani, of no value, ("nihili," Pet. Martyr, p. 9). Ar. _ma_, no, not.

Naborias, servants. (Las Casas, Hist. Gen. lib. III, cap. 32).

Nacan, middle, center. Ar. _annakan_, center.

Nagua, or enagua, the breech cloth made of cotton and worn around the middle. Ar. _annaka_, the middle.

Nitainos, the title applied to the petty chiefs, (regillos ò guiallos, Las Casas, Hist. Apol. cap,[TN-10] 197); _tayno_ vir bonus, _taynos_ nobiles, says Pet. Martyr, (Decad. p. 25). The latter truncated form of the word was adopted by Rafinesque and others, as a general name for the people and language of Hayti. There is not the slightest authority for this, nor for supposing, with Von Martius, that the first syllable is a pronominal prefix. The derivation is undoubtedly Ar. _nüddan_ to look well, to stand firm, to do anything well or skilfully.

Nucay or nozay, gold, used especially in Cuba and on the Bahamas. The words _caona_ and _tuob_ were in vogue in Haiti (Navarrete, Viages, Tom. 1, pp. 45, 134).

Operito, dead, and

Opia, the spirit of the dead (Pane, pp. 443, 444). Ar. _aparrün_ to kill, _apparahun_ dead, _lupparrükittoa_ he is dead.

Quisquéia, a native name of Haiti; "vastitas et universus ac totus. Uti Græci suum Panem," says Pet. Martyr (Decad. p. 279). "Madre de las tierras," Valverde translates it (_Idea del valor de la Isla Espanola_, Introd. p. xviii). The orthography is evidently very false.

Sabana, a plain covered with grass without trees (terrano llano, Oviedo, Hist. Gen. lib. vi. cap. 8). From this the Sp. _savana_, Eng. _savannah_. Charlevoix, on the authority of Mariana, says it is an ancient Gothic word (Histoire de l'Isle St. Domingue, i. p. 53). But it is probably from the Ar. _sallaban_, smooth, level.

Semi, the divinities worshipped by the natives ("Lo mismo que nosotros llamamos Diablo," Oviedo, Hist. Gen. lib. v. cap. 1. Not evil spirits only, but all spirits). Ar. _semeti_ sorcerers, diviners, priests.

Siba, a stone. Ar. _siba_, a stone.

Starei, shining, glowing (relucens, Pet. Martyr, Decad. p. 304). Ar. _terén_ to be hot, glowing, _terehü_ heat.

Tabaco, the pipe used in smoking the cohoba. This word has been applied in all European languages to the plant nicotiana tabacum itself.

Taita, father (Richardo). Ar. _itta_ father, _daitta_ or _datti_ my father.

Taguáguas, ornaments for the ears hammered from native gold (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. cap. 199).

Tuob, gold, probably akin to _hobin_, q. v.

Turey, heaven. Idols were called "cosas de _turey_" (Navarrete, Viages, Tom. i. p. 221). Probably akin to _starei_, q. v.

The following numerals are given by Las Casas (Hist. Apol. cap. 204).

1 hequeti. Ar. _hürketai_, that is one, from _hürkün_ to be single or alone.

2 yamosa. Ar. _biama_, two.

3 canocum. Ar. _kannikún_, many, a large number, _kannikukade_, he has many things.

4 yamoncobre, evidently formed from yamosa, as Ar. _bibiti_, four, from _biama_, two.

The other numerals Las Casas had unfortunately forgotten, but he says they counted by hands and feet, just as the Arawacks do to this day.

Various compound words and phrases are found in different writers, some of which are readily explained from the Arawack. Thus _tureigua hobin_, which Peter Martyr translates "rex resplendens uti orichalcum,"[23] in Arawack means "shining like something red." Oviedo says that at marriages in Cuba it was customary for the bride to bestow her favors on every man present of equal rank with her husband before the latter's turn came. When all had thus enjoyed her, she ran through the crowd of guests shouting _manícato, manícato_, "lauding herself, meaning that she was strong, and brave, and equal to much."[24] This is evidently the Ar. _manikade_, from _mân_, _manin_, and means I am unhurt, I am unconquered. When the natives of Haiti were angry, says Las Casas,[25] they would not strike each other, but apply such harmless epithets as _buticaco_, you are blue-eyed (anda para zarco de los ojos), _xeyticaco_, you are black-eyed (anda para negro de los ojos), or _mahite_, you have lost a tooth, as the case might be. The termination _aco_ in the first two of these expressions is clearly the Ar. _acou_, or _akusi_, eyes, and the last mentioned is not unlike the Ar. _márikata_, you have no teeth (_ma_ negative, _ari_ tooth). The same writer gives for "I do not know," the word _ita_, in Ar. _daitta_.[26]

Some of the words and phrases I have been unable to identify in the Arawack. They are _duiheyniquen_, dives fluvius, _maguacochíos_ vestiti homines, both in Peter Martyr, and the following conversation, which he says took place between one of the Haitian chieftians[TN-11] and his wife.

She. Teítoca teítoca. Técheta cynáto guamechyna. Guaibbá.

He. Cynáto machabuca guamechyna.

These words he translated: _teitoca_ be quiet, _técheta_ much, _cynato_ angry, _guamechyna_ the Lord, _guaibba_ go, _machabuca_ what is it to me. But they are either very incorrectly spelled, or are not Arawack.

The proper names of localities in Cuba, Hayti and the Bahamas, furnish additional evidence that their original inhabitants were Arawacks. Hayti, I have already shown has now the same meaning in Arawack which Peter Martyr ascribed to it at the discovery. Cubanacan, a province in the interior of Cuba, is compounded of _kuba_ and _annakan_, in the center;[27] Baracoa, the name of province on the coast, is from Ar. _bara_ sea, _koan_ to be there, "the sea is there;" in Barajagua the _bara_ again appears; Guaymaya is Ar. _waya_ clay, _mara_ there is none; Marien is from Ar. _maran_ to be small or poor; Guaniguanico, a province on the narrow western extremity of the island, with the sea on either side, is probably Ar. _wuini wuini koa_, water, water is there. The names of tribes such as Siboneyes, Guantaneyes, owe their termination to the island Arawack, _eyeri_ men, in the modern dialect _hiaeru_, captives, slaves. The Siboneyes are said by Las Casas, to have been the original inhabitants of Cuba.[28] The name is evidently from Ar. _siba_, rock, _eyeri_ men, "men of the rocks." The rocky shores of Cuba gave them this appellation. On the other hand the natives of the islets of the Bahamas were called _lukku kairi_, abbreviated to _lukkairi_, and _lucayos_, from _lukku_, man, _kairi_ an island, "men of the islands;" and the archipelago itself was called by the first explorers "las islas de los Lucayos," "isole delle Lucaí."[29] The province in the western angle of Haiti was styled Guacaiarima, which Peter Martyr translates "insulae podex;" dropping the article, _caiarima_ is sufficiently like the Ar. _kairuina_, which signifies _podex_, Sp. _culata_, and is used geographically in the same manner as the latter word.