Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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(Saggio
Volume 3 Page 228.) How Many Celtic And German Words Would Not
Julius Caesar And Tacitus Have Handed Down
To us, had the
productions of the northern countries visited by the Romans
differed as much from the Italian and
Roman, as those of
equinoctial America!) Not satisfied with retaining these words
borrowed from the Haitians, they helped also to spread them all
over America (at a period when the language of Haiti was already a
dead language), and to diffuse them among nations who were ignorant
even of the existence of the West India Islands. Some words, which
are in daily use in the Spanish colonies, are attributed
erroneously to the Haitians. Banana is from the Chaconese, the
Mbaja language; arepa (bread of manioc, or of the Jatropha manihot)
and guayuco (an apron, perizoma) are Caribbee: curiara (a very long
boat) is Tamanac: chinchorro (a hammock), and tutuma (the fruit of
the Crescentia cujete, or a vessel to contain a liquid), are Chayma
words.
I have dwelt thus long on considerations respecting the American
tongues, because I am desirous of directing attention to the deep
interest attached to this kind of research. This interest is
analogous to that inspired by the monuments of semi-barbarous
nations, which are examined not because they deserve to be ranked
among works of art, but because the study of them throws light on
the history of our species, and the progressive development of our
faculties.
It now remains for me to speak of the other Indian nations
inhabiting the provinces of Cumana and Barcelona. These I shall
only succinctly enumerate.
1. The Pariagotos or Parias.
It is thought that the terminations in goto, as Pariagoto,
Purugoto, Avarigoto, Acherigoto, Cumanagoto, Arinagoto,
Kirikirisgoto,* (* The Kirikirisgotos (or Kirikiripas) are of Dutch
Guiana. It is very remarkable, that among the small Brazilian
tribes who do not speak the language of the Tupis, the Kiriris,
notwithstanding the enormous distance of 650 leagues, have several
Tamanac words.) imply a Caribbean origin.* (* In the Tamanac
tongue, which is of the same branch as the Caribbean, we find also
the termination goto, as in anekiamgoto an animal. Often an analogy
in the termination of names, far from showing an identity of race,
only indicates that the names of the nations are borrowed from one
language.) All these tribes, excepting the Purugotos of the Rio
Caura, formerly occupied the country which has been so long under
the dominion of the Caribbees; namely, the coasts of Berbice and of
Essequibo, the peninsula of Paria, the plains of Piritu and Parima.
By this last name the little-known country, between the sources of
the Cujuni, the Caroni, and the Mao, is designated in the Missions.
The Paria Indians are mingled in part with the Chaymas of Cumana;
others have been settled by the Capuchins of Aragon in the Missions
of Caroni; for instance, at Cupapuy and Alta-Gracia, where they
still speak their own language, apparently a dialect between the
Tamanac and the Caribbee. But it may be asked, is the name Parias
or Pariagotos, a name merely geographical? Did the Spaniards, who
frequented these coasts from their first establishment in the
island of Cubagua and in Macarapana, give the name of the
promontory of Paria* to the tribe by which it was inhabited? (*
Paria, Uraparia, even Huriaparia and Payra, are the ancient names
of the country, written as the first navigators thought they heard
them pronounced. It appears to me by no means probable, that the
promontory of Paria should derive its name from that of a cacique
Uriapari, celebrated for the manner in which he resisted Diego
Ordaz in 1530, thirty-two years after Columbus had heard the name
of Paria from the mouths of the natives themselves. The Orinoco at
its mouth had also the name of Uriapari, Yuyapari, or Iyupari. In
all these denominations of a great river, of a shore, and of a
rainy country, I think I recognise the radical par, signifying
water, not only in the languages of these countries, but also in
those of nations very distant from one another on the eastern and
western coasts of America. The sea, or great water, is in the
Caribbean, Maypure, and Brazilian languages, parana: in the
Tamanac, parava. In Upper Guiana also the Orinoco is called Parava.
In the Peruvian, or Quichua, I find rain, para; to rain, parani.
Besides, there is a lake in Peru that has been very anciently
called Paria. (Garcia, Origen de los Indios, page 292.) I have
entered into these minute details concerning the word Paria,
because it has recently been supposed that some connection might be
traced between this word and the country of the Hindoo caste called
the Parias.) This we will not positively affirm; for the Caribbees
themselves give the name of Caribana to a country which they
occupied, and which extended from the Rio Sinu to the gulf of
Darien. This is a striking example of identity of name between an
American nation and the territory it possessed. We may conceive,
that in a state of society, where residence is not long fixed, such
instances must be very rare.
2. The Guaraons or Gu-ara-una, almost all free and independent, are
dispersed in the Delta of the Orinoco, with the variously ramified
channels of which they alone are well acquainted. The Caribbees
call the Guaraons U-ara-u. They owe their independence to the
nature of their country; for the missionaries, in spite of their
zeal, have not been tempted to follow them to the tree-tops. The
Guaraons, in order to raise their abodes above the surface of the
waters at the period of the great inundations, support them on the
hewn trunks of the mangrove-tree and of the Mauritia palm-tree.* (*
Their manners have been the same from time immemorial. Cardinal
Bembo described them at the beginning of the 16th century,
"quibusdam in locis propter paludes incolae domus in arboribus
aedificant." (Hist. Venet. 1551.) Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1595,
speaks of the Guaraons under the names of Araottes, Trivitivas, and
Warawites.
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