n 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.
sagittae, 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 w