For what it's worth, none of the the words "buitach," "xaqua," or
"xagua" appear in the Oxford English Dictionary. "Candiru," however,
yields
A tiny, bloodsucking catfish, Vandellia cirrhosa, of the family
Pygidiidæ, found in the Amazon river, where it attacks other animals,
including man.
1841 R. H. SCHOMBURGK in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. VI. 395, I was
frequently warned by the inhabitants to be cautious while bathing of a
small fish called Cancliru [sic].
1897 J. BACH in Proc. Zool. Soc. 901 The 'Candyrú', as the fish is
called, is much dreaded by the natives of the Jurua.
1930 E. W. GUDGER Candirú p. vii, 'Candirú' is the collective name
given to certain small catfishes of the Amazon River and its tributaries
to which are attributed the evil habit of entering the urethra of men
and the vulva of women bathers.
1962 K. F. LAGLER et al. Ichthyol. xiv. 438 One fish that can perhaps
be regarded as a true parasite is the small candiru, a South American
catfish.
-----Original Message-----
From: wikipedia-l-admin(a)nupedia.com
[mailto:wikipedia-l-admin@nupedia.com]On Behalf Of Pierre Abbat
Sent: Sunday, September 08, 2002 06:13
To: wikipedia-l(a)nupedia.com
Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] Buitach apple
On Sunday 08 September 2002 05:23, Ray Saintonge wrote:
Interesting problem. Most of the search engine
results seem to use
the
term in an identical phrase. That suggests a lot of
uncritical
copying.
I'm inclined to think that the name Buitach is
the corruption of
something else. IMHO the candidate for this is the genus Bowdichia
(Common name Sucupira). This is a tropical hardwood tree, whose seeds
and bark are reported to have medicinal qualities. It's range fits in
with what is said about Candiru.
Bowdichia is in Fabaceae, and I have a hard time imagining someone
describing
the fruit of any Fabacea as an "apple". gg:bowdichia candiru turned up
nothing; gg:sucupira candiru turned up very little, mostly wordlists.
phma
[Wikipedia-l]
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