7770: Re: 7742: Re: 7727: Quisqueya (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: LeGrace Benson <legracebenson@clarityconnect.com>
>
>From: Jean Succar <succarj@hotmail.com>
>
>Meaning on the word Quisqueya
>
>When I was studying Haitian History as a kid, they taught us that the words 
>Quisqueya, Haiti and Bohio were Indians words meaning: Mountainous Land, and 
>litteraly: "High lands".  I don't know if this still stands.
>
>According to a notation in a reference I found in Haiti a few weeks ago
but have not yet unpacked: Taino used three words to refer to their locale.
1.Aiti, which referred to the physical territory on which they lived; 2.
Kiskeya, which was an idealised, paradisial version of the quotidian
territory and life; 3. Baharuco, centre of refuge in the mountains to which
the Taino retreated, and to which marrons would later come.
I think this reference is from a piece by Jacques Roumain in an old Bureau
of Ethnology issue.  
LeGrace Benson
>