The following numerals are given by Las Casas (Hist. Apol. cap. 204).
1 hequeti. Ar. hürketai, that is one, from hürkün to be single or alone.
2 yamosa. Ar. biama, two.
3 canocum. Ar. kannikún, many, a large number, kannikukade, he has many things.
4 yamoncobre, evidently formed from yamosa, as Ar. bibiti, four, from biama, two.
The other numerals Las Casas had unfortunately forgotten, but he says they counted by hands and feet, just as the Arawacks do to this day.
Various compound words and phrases are found in different writers, some of which are readily explained from the Arawack. Thus tureigua hobin, which Peter Martyr translates “rex resplendens uti orichalcum,”[23] in Arawack means “shining like something red.” Oviedo says that at marriages in Cuba it was customary for the bride to bestow her favors on every man present of equal rank with her husband before the latter’s turn came. When all had thus enjoyed her, she ran through the crowd of guests shouting manícato, manícato, “lauding herself, meaning that she was strong, and brave, and equal to much.”[24] This is evidently the Ar. manikade, from mân, manin, and means I am unhurt, I am unconquered. When the natives of Haiti were angry, says Las Casas,[25] they would not strike each other, but apply such harmless epithets as buticaco, you are blue-eyed (anda para zarco de los ojos), xeyticaco, you are black-eyed (anda para negro de los ojos), or mahite, you have lost a tooth, as the case might be. The termination aco in the first two of these expressions is clearly the Ar. acou, or akusi, eyes, and the last mentioned is not unlike the Ar. márikata, you have no teeth (ma negative, ari tooth). The same writer gives for “I do not know,” the word ita, in Ar. daitta.[26]
Some of the words and phrases I have been unable to identify in the Arawack. They are duiheyniquen, dives fluvius, maguacochíos vestiti homines, both in Peter Martyr, and the following conversation, which he says took place between one of the Haitian chieftians and his wife.
She. Teítoca teítoca. Técheta cynáto guamechyna. Guaibbá.
He. Cynáto machabuca guamechyna.