The following words will partly show the difference between the Guaycuru language and the general lingua.

GEN. LINGUA. GUAYCURU.
Sun Araci A’liga
Moon Jaci Pannay (used by the men only)
Epannay (women)
White Tinga Lapaca
Black Una Nabidre
Great Guassu Elodo
Brother Enduva Nixo
Salt Juki Juki
Ostrich Ema Apacanigo
Guaripe
Crocodile Jacare Nioxe
Horse Cavaru Apolicano
Pig Taycu Nigda
Dog Jaguara Niknik
Wolf Guara Tiglicon
Cat Bracaya Perixene
Man Apuaba Hulegre
Demon, or Evil Spirit Anhanga Nanigogigo
Diviner Page Unigenito

The territory through which the Igatimy, Escopil, and Miammaya flow is inhabited by the Cahans, (people of the wood,) so denominated from their always living within the precincts of woods, in consequence of their dread of the Guaycurus, who alone proceed along the plains and open country, to facilitate the march of their horses.

The Cabans live in aldeias: not more than thirty years ago they had fifteen of those villages. They paint themselves with the dye of the urucu, perforate the under lip, and insert a cylinder of resin, transparent as crystal, secured by a small wooden pin at the upper extremity. The bow and arrow are their arms, made with instruments of flint and the sharpened teeth of the boar. They cultivate the cotton tree, the wool of which they spin and weave by a method peculiar to themselves. Their vesture consists of a sort of ponche, in the form of a sack, made of a piece of cotton cloth of good width, doubled and sewed in part at the corners, with an opening to introduce the head and neck through, also two apertures for the arms, and terminating in two aprons, with a cord round the waist. In the morning they sing hymns to the Creator, accompanied with extravagant movements; one of them, with the hands clasped and the body bent, making a circular movement around the others for a considerable time. Amongst them are men who are, or pretend to be, at the same time, surgeons, doctors, diviners, and priests, and, like the latter, carry in their hands a cross, which custom they have unquestionably derived from the first Jesuitical missionaries who penetrated into the country, and who used a bordāo, or staff, (perhaps also as an instrument of defence,) in the shape of a cross. In their district there are woods of wild orange trees, and prodigious quantities of bees, which do not produce good honey, but the wax is better than that of the northern provinces.

In the middle of the last century, when the plenipotentiaries of Spain and Portugal established a boundary-mark upon the Jauru, there lived in the vicinity of the Fecho dos Morros, a nation of Indians, called Bayas, of which, at the present day, there is no intelligence.

The povoaçoes in this district are the fazenda of Camapuan, with a hermitage, situated in 19° 36′ south latitude, and Miranda, a prezidio, founded in 1797, about five hundred yards from the right margin of the river Aranhahy, near a serra, in a land abounding with game. Upon the track to Camapuan there is a large lake.

With the foundation of Nova Coimbra the Spaniards commenced in this province the towns of Villa Real, near the tropic, St. Carlos, on the margin of the river Appa, and St. Joze, which was demolished by the Portuguese about twenty years ago.

Near the heads of the Aranhahy there yet appears some vestiges of the before-mentioned city of Xerez.

District of Matto Grosso.

This district, which is two hundred and forty miles from north to south, and two hundred and seventy from east to west on the northern part, is bounded on the south by the Spanish possessions, on the east by the Paraguay, on the north by the district of Juruenna, and on the west by the Guapore. It extends between 13° and 16° 20′ of southern latitude. The face of the country is undulated with serras of no great elevation, which, however, attract the sight at a great distance, with plains more or less extensive, woods, and intermixtures of charnecas, (barren tracts,) and is watered by a great number of rivers, tributary to the two largest of South America.