ainland,
depends our opinion of the course of migration of the primitive
inhabitants of the western world. And if this is the tribe whose
charming simplicity Columbus and Peter Martyr described in such poetic
language, then the historian will acknowledge a desire to acquaint
himself more closely with its past and its present. It is my intention
to show that such was their former geographical position.

While in general features there is nothing to distinguish them from the
red race elsewhere, they have strong national traits. Physically they
are rather undersized, averaging not over five feet four inches in
height, but strong-limbed, agile, and symmetrical. Their foreheads are
low, their noses more allied to the Aryan types than usual with their
race, and their skulls of that form defined by craniologists as
orthognathic brachycephalic.

From the earliest times they have borne an excellent character.
Hospitable, peace-loving, quick to accept the humbler arts of
civilization and the simpler precepts of Christianity, they have ever
offered a strong contrast to their neighbors, the cruel and warlike
Caribs. They are not at all prone to steal, lie, or drink, and their
worst faults are an addiction to blood-revenge, and a superstitious
veneration for their priests.

They are divided into a number of families, over fifty in all, the
genealogies of which are carefully kept in the female line, and the
members of any one of which are forbidden to intermarry. In this
singular institution they resemble many other native tribes.

LANGUAGE.

The earliest specimen of their language under its present name is given
by Johannes de Laet in his _Novus Orbis, seu Descriptio Indiae
Occidentalis_ (Lugd. Bat. 1633). It was obtained in 1598. In 1738 the
Moravian brethren founded several missionary stations in the country,
but owing to various misfortunes, the last of their posts was given up
in 1808. To them we owe the only valuable monuments of the language in
existence.

Their first instructor was a mulatto boy, who assisted them in
translating into the Arawack a life of Christ. I cannot learn that this
is extant. Between 1748 and 1755 one of the missionaries, Theophilus
Schumann, composed a dictionary, _Deutsch-Arawakisches W[oe]rterbuch_,
and a grammar, _Deutsch-Arawakische Sprachlehre_, which have remained
in manuscript in the library of the Moravian community at Paramaribo.
Schumann died in 1760, and as he was the first to comp