1000090060

COOK : QUICHUA NAMES OF SWEET POTATOES

in a place not recently cultiYatcd. At ::>anta Ana. threc cl istinct

kinds, t.o juclge from thc foliagc, wc•·c fo und as common weccls in

cultivatecl i:lnd. But Lo certify that

an~'

pl:111t is a gcnuine native

species scems out of thc question in a region whcrc

all

of thc lancl

has probably been clearecl ma ny times ancl culti v:üccl inter–

mittently for ccnturics. On the other h:wd , t herc is no reason

to cleny that the sweet potnto may h:n·e bcen clomesticatcd in

the Peruvia.n region, as many othcr plants appear to haYc bccn.

The words

apichu

nncl

cumara

havc becn rccorclcd beforc,

but withou t indications of their concurrent use and distinct

applications among the Quichuas. Markham's Quichua

Vo–

ca.bulary

gives

apichu

as the name of ihe swect potnto, bui OYer–

looks

cumam

altogether. H.efercnce might also be maJe to

Holguin's

?"le

y Diccionan:o

without find ing

cwnara,

sincc the

word does not appcar in its :1 lphabctic position, but undcr

apiclw

we find: "Apichu, cumar,

nom.

Camote." :\lnrtius's

Elhno–

graphie

has neither

u¡úclw.

nor

cumara,

but gi,·cs

camote

as the

Quichua namc, with a clcri,·ation from thc :\l cxican

wmolli.

Cobo, \Yhose

Historia

was writ.tcn in Pcru lcss than sevcnty years

after the conquest (though not published till 1890), rccorc!cd

apichu

as the Quichua name,

tutuca

ns thc Aymar:c n:unc, ami

camote

as the na me used by thc tipaniards of l'cru, bonowcd from

the language of i\Iexico. Coba apFcars to l1a,.e Yisited the in–

terior of Boli\"i:1, but not the interior

.of

Pcru.

Ko reason is npparent for qucstioning the status of

apiclw

and

curnara

as genuine Quichua. word::>. Etymologics would

be easy to in vent. For

apichu

such

cmnbination as

npi

(ma izc

pudding) and

pichu

(flesh) or

pichi

(root) would be appropriatc,

while

ctnnara

might be relatcd to

ccu111u

l.:omu,

mean ing

crooked or hunch-backcd. Othc1· Quichua namc,; analogous lo

cumar

cumara

are

paliar

(Phasaeolus),

quii,¡wr

(Buddlcia),

qui.suar

(!'olylepis),

ancara

(gourd),

sara

(Zca),

tara (Caesa lpinia

tinctoria),

and

achil·a

(Canna).

The sweet potato \Yas not knom1 to Europcans beforc the

discovery of Amcrica. The first namc that the Spaniards

learnccl and carried back to i::>pain was

batata,

the original of our

word potato, but the l\>Iexican namc

camote

is now more widely