The scanty vocabulary of their language, taken in 1802, shows clusters of consonants, especially at the end of words, but with its queer, half-Spanish orthography does not appear to form a reliable basis for linguistic conclusions. A few words agree with Tónkawē, the language of a small Texan tribe; and according to tradition, the Karánkawas, once the giant people of Matagorda bay, on the Texan Coast, spoke a dialect of Atákapa. These three tribes were, like all other Texan tribes, reputed to be anthropophagists. In extenuation of this charge, Milfort asserts that they "do not eat men, but roast them only, on account of the cruelties first enacted against their ancestors by the Spaniards" (p. 90). This remark refers to a tribe, also called Atákapas, which he met at a distance of five days' travel west of St. Bernard bay.