The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arawack Language of Guiana in its
Linguistic and Ethnological Relations, by Daniel G. Brinton

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Title: The Arawack Language of Guiana in its Linguistic and Ethnological Relations

Author: Daniel G. Brinton

Release Date: February 14, 2010 [EBook #31273]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note

A number of typographical errors have been maintained in this version of
this book. They have been marked with a [TN-#], which refers to a
description in the complete list found at the end of the text.

The following codes for less common characters were used:

[oe] oe ligature
[lr] l printed over r

THE ARAWACK LANGUAGE OF GUIANA

IN ITS

Linguistic and Ethnological Relations.

By D. G. BRINTON, M. D.

PHILADELPHIA:
McCALLA & STAVELY, PRINTERS.
237-9 DOCK STREET.
1871.

THE ARAWACK LANGUAGE OF GUIANA

IN ITS

LINGUISTIC AND ETHNOLOGICAL RELATIONS.

BY D. G. BRINTON, M. D.

The Arawacks are a tribe of Indians who at present dwell in British and
Dutch Guiana, between the Corentyn and Pomeroon rivers. They call
themselves simply _lukkunu_, men, and only their neighbors apply to them
the contemptuous name _aruac_ (corrupted by Europeans into Aroaquis,
Arawaaks, Aroacos, Arawacks, etc.), meal-eaters, from their peaceful
habit of gaining an important article of diet from the amylaceous pith
of the _Mauritia flexuosa_ palm, and the edible root of the cassava
plant.

They number only about two thousand souls, and may seem to claim no more
attention at the hands of the ethnologist than any other obscure Indian
tribe. But if it can be shown that in former centuries they occupied the
whole of the West Indian archipelago to within a few miles of the shore
of the northern continent, then on the question whether their
affiliations are with the tribes of the northern or southern m