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@nupedia.com [mailto:wikipedia-l-admin@nupedia.com]On Behalf Of Pierre Abbat Sent: Sunday, September 08, 2002 06:13 To: wikipedia-l@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.
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