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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We Returned To The Monastery Only When The
Sound Of The Bell Called Us To The Refectory To Share The Repasts
Of The Missionaries.
Sometimes, very early in the morning, we
followed them to the church, to attend the doctrina, that is to
say, the religious instruction of the Indians.
It was rather a
difficult task to explain dogmas to the neophytes, especially those
who had but a very imperfect knowledge of the Spanish language. On
the other hand, the monks are as yet almost totally ignorant of the
language of the Chaymas; and the resemblance of sounds confuses the
poor Indians and suggests to them the most whimsical ideas. Of this
I may cite an example. I saw a missionary labouring earnestly to
prove that infierno, hell, and invierno, winter, were not one and
the same thing; but as different as heat and cold. The Chaymas are
acquainted with no other winter than the season of rains; and
consequently they imagined the Hell of the whites to be a place
where the wicked are exposed to frequent showers. The missionary
harangued to no purpose: it was impossible to efface the first
impression produced by the analogy between the two consonants. He
could not separate in the minds of the neophytes the ideas of rain
and hell; invierno and infierno.
After passing almost the whole day in the open air, we employed our
evenings, at the convent, in making notes, drying our plants, and
sketching those that appeared to form new genera.
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