[12] See, among other works on the subject, Du Parler des Hommes et du Parler des Femmes dans la Langue Caraïbe, par Lucien Adam, Paris, 1879, in which the author makes the following statement:—
“Le double langage se réduit, au point de vue de la lexicologie, à cette singularité que, pour exprimer environ 400 idées sur 2,000 à 3,000, les hommes invariablement, et les femmes seulment entre elles, se servaient de mots différents.”
See also Introduction à la grammaire Caraïbe, du P. R. Breton, and the Dictionaire Caraïbe, of the same author. [↑]
[13] The Purgatorio, Canto I, vv. 22–27.
The poet is not to be taken too literally in this last verse. In consequence of the precession of the equinoxes, the constellations are ever changing their position with reference to any given point on the earth’s surface. There was a time, in the distant past, when the Southern Cross was visible in the very land in which Dante penned his immortal poem. “At the time of Claudius Ptolemæus,” says Humboldt, “the beautiful star at the base of the Southern Cross had still an altitude of 6° 10′ at its meridian passage at Alexandria, while at the present day it culminates there several degrees below the horizon.
“In the fourth century, the Christian anchorites in the Thebaid desert might have seen the Cross at an altitude of ten degrees.” And again, “The Southern Cross began to become invisible in 52° 30′ north latitude 2900 years before our era, since, according to Galle, this constellation might previously have reached an altitude of more than 10°. When it disappeared from the horizon of the countries on the Baltic, the great pyramid of Cheops had already been erected more than five hundred years. The pastoral tribe of the Hyksos made their incursion seven hundred years earlier. The past seems to be visibly nearer to us when we connect its measurement with great and memorable events.”—Cosmos, Vol. II, pp. 288–291, New York, 1850.
For an interesting discussion of Dante’s “quattro stelle,” four stars, with references, see Vernon’s Readings on the Purgatorio, Vol. I, pp. 10, 11, third edition. Compare also Ramusio, Delle Navigazioni e Viaggi, Vol. I, pp. 127 and 193, Venetia, 1550, and Oviedo, Historia General y Natural de las Indias. Lib. II, Cap. 11, pp. 45 and 46, Madrid, 1851. [↑]
[14] Geografia Statistica de Venezuela, p. 461, Firenze, 1864. [↑]
[15] It was here that the well-known brand of Angostura bitters was first prepared by Dr. Siegert. The women of the city, however, maintain that its discovery was due to a Venezolana, who was the wife of the German doctor. Owing to the exactions of the Venezuelan government, the manufacture of this widely used infusion was long ago transferred to the Port-of-Spain, where it now constitutes one of the city’s chief industries. [↑]
[16] A Naturalist in the Guianas, p. 65, by Eugene André, New York, 1904. [↑]