COOK AND COOK! NAMES OF SWEET POTATOES 341 



arm, by an analogy easily understood. In Easter Island, where 

 the full form of the word kumara is used, there is a word, komari, 

 also applied to parts of the human body. Komala means pleas- 

 ant in Hawaii. 



Dried sweet potatoes are called kao in New Zealand and ao 

 in Hawaii, where the same is applied to dried taro or to Alocasia. 

 Koiri, in New Zealand, means "to plant potatoes," and a variety 

 of sweet potatoes is called koiwi. Other meanings of kao are 

 rib, core, shoot, or terminal bud of a plant. The Hawaiians 

 called the sea-bread or hardtack of the English ships ao when they 

 first saw it. Kao suggests kaya, the Quichua name for dried 

 ocas (Oxalis). Kauno, in Quichua, means withered or dried in 

 the sun; kaunu, dried cane or corn stalks; potatoes after freezing, 

 chuno or chunu; potatoes left behind in the field, koyo. Kaunu 

 and chunu are obviously related, like the German kauen and the 

 English chew. 



According to Martius the sweet potato is called coundi by two 

 tribes of Indians in Brazil, while in Florida kunti is the native name 

 of the edible cycad Zamia. In the Lucumayo valley of south- 

 ern Peru the rootstocks of Xanthosoma, an aroid closely simi- 

 lar to the taro of the Polynesians, are dried "to make chufws." 

 In the vicinity of Ollantaytambo, Peru, a native medicinal plant 

 with thickened roots, somewhat resembling the dried ocas, is 

 called kayakaya. 



The Hawaiians had two words, haaweawee and pahulu for 

 second-growth sweet potatoes, or those that spring up from roots 

 left behind at the harvest, just as the Quichuas have koyo, acacha, 

 cachu, and ihua (eewa) for potatoes left in the ground or growing 

 in the old fields. In New Zealand gleanings of root crops are 

 called wairan, but the word kaunga is applied to sweet potatoes 

 that will not grow when planted. Another meaning of kaunga 

 is "smelling unpleasantly," which would be a natural connection 

 if the word related to stored potatoes that had begun to decay. 



In some of the Polynesian islands kao is not defined as relat- 

 ing to dried sweet potatoes, but is used in the sense of "grabbling," 

 taking a few of the roots from the hill without disturbing the 

 plant. In explaining the connection Tregear states that the im- 



