Another feature pointing to the incorporative plan is the location of the object. The rule in the old language was to place the object in all instances before the verb, that is, between the verb and its subject when the latter was other than a personal suffix. Dr. Cavalcanti says that this is now in a measure changed, so that when the object is of the third person it is placed after the verb, although in the first and second persons the old rule still holds good.[[326]] Thus the ancient Tupis would say:
| boia | aè | o-sou, |
| snake | him | he-bites. |
But in the modern tongue it is:
| boia | o-sou | aé |
| snake | he-bites | him. |
With the other persons the rule is still for the object to precede and to be attached to the theme:
xeoroinca, I thee kill.
xepeinca, I you kill.
xeincayepe, me killest thou.
Many highly complex verbal forms seem to me to illustrate a close incorporative tendency. Let us analyze for instance the word,
xeremimboe,