Page:The Brasilian language and its agglutination.pdf/24

 vanced by philologists, when intending to characterize the agglutinative family.

We have not yet any settled fact, relating to the ethnographic origin of the Brasilian savages, nor to the particular point of their primitive or derived speech. No accurate inquiry or successful investigation exists on this very important matter.

It is, however, a fact of the easiest intuition, that an immense result would issue for history and science, if it were possible to prove, in a satisfactory way: — « from what country these millions of individuals who came to live in America emigrated; in what century this great event happened; — and what speech, what religion, what degree of civilisation they have brought with them to the lands of their new abodes. »

For want of these important data, the only way to obtain some regular information, relating to the language of our savage tribes, is, undoubtedly, to study and analyse their forms and processes in the state and conditions, in which they have come to our knowledge and actual observation. As a guide, or as auxiliary instruments, to such work, we have nothing more, than those books of prayer or instruction, pre-