cook; quichua names of sweet potatoes 89 



known in Spanish America. Many names in local languages 

 have probably been lost, but some have been placed on record. 

 Martius collected the following series from native tribes of 

 Brazil: coutarouti, coundi, gnunana, hetich, ictig, imazaka, jetica, 

 joto, mapas (?), mtiporu, mapuey, mouka, napi, orairai, quaiu, 

 tsa, and zamaygua. 



In the Kekchi language of eastern Guatemala, a member of 

 the Maya family, the sweet potato bears the name is. The 

 Kekchis do not raise many sweet potatoes, this crop being dis- 

 tinctly less important than osh (Xanthosoma) or piyak (Dios- 

 corea), yet sweet potatoes often grow as weeds in cultivated lands. 

 The potato (Solatium tuberosum) is called by the Kekchis kash- 

 lanis, meaning "foreign sweet potato." 



Several of the early Spanish historians of the West Indies 

 recorded the name age or aje, but whether this belonged properly 

 to the sweet potato or to some other root-crop has been uncer- 

 tain. Some of the accounts evidently refer to Manihot, but 

 Gray and Trumbull settled upon Dioscorea as the correct appli- 

 cation. 1 Gomez de la Maza claims both age and boniato as in- 

 digenous Cuban names of sweet potatoes. More than a score 

 of Cuban varieties are listed, mostly with names derived from 

 native languages of the Island. Boniato is the name in regular 

 use in Cuba, batata being scarcely known. 2 Batata is used in 

 Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Panama; but two indigenous names, 

 araba and deki, are reported by Pittier from primitive tribes 

 living on the Atlantic slope of Costa Rica. 3 



Among all these names of sweet potatoes in other parts of 

 America there appears to be no definite resemblance to either 

 of the Quichua words, apichu and cumara. Perhaps the nearest 

 approach to similarity is between cumara and the Mexican 

 camote or camotli. Yet the number and diversity of the native 

 names are not without significance as indications of the American 



1 Gray A., and Trumbull, J. H. Review of de Candolle's Origin of Cultivated 

 Plants; with annotations upon certain American species. American Journal of 

 Science, Third Series, 25: 250. 1883. 



2 Gomez de la Maza, M. Diccionario Botanico de los Nombres Vulgares 

 Cubanos y Puerto-Riquenos. 1889. 



3 Pittier, H. Plantas Usuales de Costa Rica, 105. 1908. 



