316 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
connected by philologists with the Greek adjective kakos, the equiv- 
alent of the English word bad. Eden’s translation? elaborates 
Oviedo’s original statement to the extent of definitely ascribing this 
etymology to the Indians, and associating it with the ery of the 
howling monkey. 
OTHER AMERICAN NAMES OF THE COCONUT. 
It now appears that names other than coco are applied to the 
coconut by aboriginal Indians. Such names have been found by 
Prof. Tf. Pittier among the inhabitants of the southern part of the 
Central American republic of Costa Rica, where several very primi- 
tive tribes have hidden themselves in the forest and avoided contact 
with the Spanish colonists. The name ko-ko is used by the Cabécara, 
Dorasque, and Guaymi tribes; the Cunas say o-hé6b, also slightly sug- 
gestive of copra, while the Bribri and Brunka people have quite dis- 
tinct terms, sura ud and sia ud, respectively. 
According to Professor Pittier the Brunkas are good sailors, who 
make voyages of considerable length along the Pacific coast, though 
they are careful to keep their canoes within sight of land. The 
Brunkas live not far from the Buriea peninsula where Oviedo found 
the coco palm in special abundance in the early part of the sixteenth 
century. The Burieca district is also the nearest part of the main- 
land to Cocos Island. That this region possessed at one time a 
much more advanced civilization is shown by the graves of the adja- 
cent Chiriqui district of Panama, and other ancient remains dis- 
covered in the southern part of Costa Rica by Professor Pittier. 
It is to be expected that other native names will be found in the 
interior districts of South America where the coconut is known to 
exist, but these regions are still largely unexplored. The native 
names of the coconut in Brazil, inaiaguacu, recorded by Piso and 
Maregrave in Brazil, have been noted in a previous chapter. Accord- 
ing to Martius the name inaja or inaia is also applied in Brazil to 
another related palm, Maximiliana. Martius associates the Tupi 
names for fruits, yba, iba, and ia with such words as nha or nia, which 
relate more specifically to the large fruits of the Brazil-nut tree, 
Bertholletia excelsa, and then points out the similarity to niu, the 
Hawaiian name of the coconut.” 
@ See footnote 4, p. 278. 
6 Martius, C. I. P., Beitriige zur Ethnographie und Sprachenkunde Amerika’s, 
vol. 2, p. 417. (Leipzig, 1867.) In Marcgrave’s vocabulary of a native Brazilian 
language, published in 1658, the word nhia is said to signify heart (cor), 
