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COOK: QUICHUA N AMES OF SWEET POTATOES 89
known in Spanish America. :Many names in local languages
have pmbably been lost, but sorne have been placed on record. .
Martius collccted the following series from native tribes of
Brazil : coulamut·i, coundi, gnunana, helich, iclig, imazaka, j etica,
joto, mapo.s ('!), maporu, mapuey, moulca, napi, orairai, quaiu,
tsa, nnd za1naygua.
In the K ekchi language of eastern G uatemala, a m ember of
thc :\I::tya famil y, the sweet potato bears t he name is. The
Kekchis tlo not m ise many sweet pota toes, this crop being dis–
t.inctly le•s importa nt than osh (Xanthosoma) or piyak (Dios–
corea), yct swcet pota toes often grow as weeds in eultiva ted lands.
Thc pota to (Solanum tuberosum) is called by the Kekchis kash–
lan-is, n1en.ning: Hforeign sweet potato."
. ·e,·eral of the early Spanish historians of t he 'Vest Indies
recortletl the name age or aje, but \\·hether this belonged properly
to the sweet potato or to some other root-crop has been uncer–
tai n. Some of t he accounts eYidently refer to lVIanihot, but
Uray a nd Trumbull settled upon Dioscorea as t he correct appli–
cution.' Uomez de la lVIaza clu.ims both age and boniato as in–
dip;cnous C uban names of sweet potatoes. lVIore than a score
of Cuban \·aricties a re listed, most ly with n ames derived from
na ti ve languages of t he Island. Boniato is t he name in regular
u.-e in C uba, batata being scarcely known .' Batata is used in
Puerto ltico, Venezuela, a nd Panama; but two indigenous names,
araba antl deki, are reported by Pittier from primitive tribes
li ving on the Atla ntic slope of Costa Rica.•
Among a ll thcse. names of sweet potatoes in other p a.rts of
r\merica t herc a ppears to be no delinite resemblance to either
of the Quichua words, apichu a"d cumara. the nearest
approach to ~imilarity is between cumara a nd the Mexican
camote or cam.olli. Yet t he number diversity of the na.tive
names are not wit hout significance as indica.tions of the American
1 Gray .\ ., nnd Tnunbull, .J. H. Rcvicw of de Candollc's Origin of Cultiva.ted
1'1:-lnt...; ; wit.h upon ccrtain Americnn spccics. American Journal of
SeicrH:C, Third Series, 25: 250. 1883.
: Comcz de la Ma1.a, i\L Diccionario Botanico de los Nombres Vulgares
Cubanos y Pucrt.o-Riqueiios. 1889.
1 Pitticr, H. Ph\ntas Usuales de Costa Rica, 165. 1908.