From debruces@teleline.es Thu Nov 1 07:53:23 2001 Received: from mailscan1.cac.washington.edu (mailscan1.cac.washington.edu [140.142.32.16]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.11.6+UW01.08/8.11.6+UW01.10) with SMTP id fA1FrMn76672 for ; Thu, 1 Nov 2001 07:53:22 -0800 Received: FROM mxu1.u.washington.edu BY mailscan1.cac.washington.edu ; Thu Nov 01 07:53:21 2001 -0800 Received: from tsmtp6.mail.isp (mailhost.teleline.es [195.235.113.141] (may be forged)) by mxu1.u.washington.edu (8.11.6+UW01.08/8.11.6+UW01.10) with ESMTP id fA1FrKB10830 for ; Thu, 1 Nov 2001 07:53:20 -0800 Received: from 212-170-174-60.uc.nombres.ttd.es ([212.170.174.60]) by tsmtp6.mail.isp (Netscape Messaging Server 4.15 tsmtp6 Jul 26 2001 13:10:38) with ESMTP id GM4PGW01.FV7 for ; Thu, 1 Nov 2001 16:53:20 +0100 Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 15:52:09 +0000 From: "Luis H. Aguilar Polo" X-Mailer: The Bat! (v1.51) Reply-To: debruces X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Message-ID: <677452360.20011101155209@teleline.es> To: James Butrica Subject: Re[2]: eating fried canaries In-Reply-To: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hola James, Con fecha jueves, 01 de noviembre de 2001, 13:06:51, escribió: >>I live in Tenerife, Canary Islands, though I ain't from here, when one >>goes to the History Museum in the capitol of this island the first >>reference to ancient times in direct connection with the islands is >>king Juba II of Mauritania who named them Canaries cause of the fine >>breed of fight/guard dogs that ancients chased in here, by the way, the >>dogs I mention are still in fashion around these waters. >> >>So in first instance, these islands take their name from a breed of >>dogs, called here "Presa Canario" it's like a tiger skinned bulldog >>but bigger in size and certainly fierce and savage in its attacks but >>at the same time quite intelligent and loyal with its owners. >> >>Luis JB> I haven't had a chance to check Pliny yet on this subject, but I gather JB> from the Latin dictionary of Lewis & Short that he mentions HUMAN Canaries JB> in Book 5, "a voracious people of Mauritania," according to the dictionary. JB> I wonder whether Juba named them as well, and why they got that name. I found a second hand reference to Pliny calling Tenerife "Nivaria" in page 28 of _Historia de Tenerife, guanches y conquistadores_ Tomo I Coordinación Oswaldo Brito González, Ed. Aula de Cultura de Tenerife, 1992, ISBN: 84-87340-26-1, in page 123 I find reference to Pliny in his Natural History retelling observations by Eustatius Sebosus and an unnamed expedition sent by Juba II, king of Mauritania (from 25 B.C. onwards) and Rome ally to scout the "Islas Afortunadas o Purpuarias" in which Tenerife is called Nivaria: "A la vista de ellas está Nivaria, cubierta siempre de nieblas y que tomó su nombre de las nieves perpétuas" (tr. At it sight stands Nivaria, always covered with fog and that got its name from the eternal snows). This is a north view of the island in my opinion, where I live in the south of Tenerife it's almost 365 days a year sunny and with spring like weather all year around, nowadays at least, weather has changed in the past 100 years a lot as Antonio, my 94 year old neighbour told me a lot of times, in his young days the island was very rainy and not as dry as now by far. So it's difficult that classical Greeks knew canaries (the bird) with that name. The custom to eat little birds is usual around the Mediterranean, in the same mainland Spain one can find "Codornices" in some bars though I haven't had the pleasure to eat them, neither I plan to. I can't talk about the Canaries in depht cause I have not the needed bibliography but about the name of this island currently called Tenerife I can say it's thought the toponym comes from Bereber dialects, on one hand from "tener" = mountain and "ife" = white, on other it may come from "tener" = white snow and "ife" = high hill. Abreu Galindo tells us that the aborigins called the island "Achinech" _Las culturas aborígenes canarias_ A. Tejera Gaspar and R. González Antón, Edit. Interinsular. In previous times to the conquest (effected in 1496 by Castille though it was a private enterprise not sponsored by the ruling monarchs Fernando and Isabel, los Reyes Católicos) among other names used for this tiny spot in the Atlantic, the island was called Isla del Infierno, (tr. Hell's Island) for example by the Normans _Fontes Rerum Canariaum: Le Canarien_ pp. 124. The Teide, the 3718 meters high volcano in the center of this island may have something to do with this view about it. I have not a direct source but Canaries means literally "land of dogs", Can - arias, the reason the breed of autoctonous dogs mentioned in my previous post. JB> James Lawrence Peter Butrica JB> Department of Classics JB> The Memorial University of Newfoundland JB> St. John's, Newfoundland A1C 5S7 JB> (709) 737-7914 -- Saludos, Luis mailto:debruces@teleline.es .