pipsissewa and pirarucu and paradise as a kind of library

Though I set a tentative goal for myself after the previous essay of introducing at least 10 words per essay (what, really, is the purpose of a speller's diary if you do fewer?), I simply can't keep to that goal. Words arrest me and make me look at them more closely. Many words open worlds, and it is refreshing, informative and humbling to stop and enjoy a small taste of the world of these words. In so doing I am reminded of trips I used to take driving through the Western United States. I lived and taught in KS from 1990-96 but had family in CA and OR. Each summer I would rent a car and drive from KS to CA and then OR and back to KS. It would take about three or four weeks, and I would stretch it out as long as I could, because I wanted to stop and see different things each time. After each two-hour excursion (I tried to have at least one or two mini-excursions per day), I remember carefully filing away brochures or even books on the subjects I had visited, vowing to return when I had "more time," inspired as I was to internalize the truths of life which the site had to offer me. But I have not really returned to do that work, and I continue to find the most fascinating things elsewhere that "distract" me from whatever it is that other people think I should be doing. And, when I am "distracted" by new things, I want to study them, see them, learn about them, and put them in special places in my memory.

Sometimes I am both delighted and frustrated by the task of amassing knowledge. It delights me because each day I can be confident of the world's opening to me in strikingly new ways. I become frustrated because I wonder sometimes whether I will ever have more than the most superficial knowledge of something. One friend and colleague I had fifteen years ago, a most unusual man, an expert in Armenian literature, history and theology, used to tell me that he thought that life consisted in simply our getting samples of things, as sort of a foretaste of that great "seminar in the sky" which we would be privileged to attend for eternity. I am mum on that issue at present. Jorge Luis Borges might have said that he always imagined that "paradise will be a kind of library"; my friend saw heaven as a sort of place where you endlessly discuss texts and ideas, without becoming tired.

To The Words

We will be lucky if we get to two words in this essay. They are pipsissewa and pirarucu (accent on last syllable). They are near neighbors in the dictionary but don't inhabit at all the same "worlds." It is unlikely that anyone who knows the former will know the latter. Though the pipsissewa is a European and North American plant, and the pirarucu a large Amazonian fish, each has interesting stories about it. I won't give you pictures here, but I will provide links to both.

The pipsissewa is a small evergreen perennial (officially known as Chiamaphila umbellata and also known as prince's pine or ground holly) that grows up to about 10 inches tall, with shiny bright green leaves and white and pink blossoms which come out in summer. The OED suggests the word may derive from the Algonquin language, though various web sites suggest other derivations. The second image on this page suggests that pipsissewa is derived from a Cree word meaning "It breaks into small pieces" because the leathery leaves contained a substance that was supposed to dissolve kidney stones. It was ineffective in that, but it was used by various Indian tribes to heal blisters or reduce swelling. Its leaves were also used as an astringent and diuretic from the late 18th century through the Civil War. As early as 1818 we have the following use of the word: "General Varnum says the umbellata is the Sipsisewa or Pipsisewa and is highly efficacious in the Cure of cancers." The herb is still found as one of the ingredients in root beer.

Pirarucu

The pirarucu is the giant red fish of the Amazon basin, Arapaima gigas, and is one of the largest fresh-water fish in the world. As early as 1840 a survey of the area around British Guyana has this sentence: "The Arapaima or Pirarucu (Sudas Gigas), and..the Lau-lau, are from ten to twelve feet long." In 1908 we have this: "The arapaima, the game fish of South American waters, a monster that attained a length of twelve feet and a weight of twelve hundred pounds." Its scales are large and hard enough to be used as nail files, though its meat is tender and a very popular dish in the Amazonian region. The following is a lengthy myth that explains the origin of the pirarucu.

"Pirarucu was an indian who belonged to the Uaiás tribe that lived around the Lábrean plains in the Southwestern Amazon. He was a brave, but heartless warrior, even though Pindarô, his father and chief of the tribe, was a good man. Pirarucu was full of vanities, egoism and excessively proud of his power. While his father visited with friendly neighboring tribes, Pirarucu took advantage of his absence to take village people hostage and execute them for any reason. He also criticized the gods.

Tupã, the god of the gods, observed Pirarucu for a long time, until, tired of the man's behavior, he decided to punish Pirarucu. Tupã called Polo and demanded that he spread his most powerful lightening in the whole area. He also called Iururaruaçú, the goddess of torrents, and demanded that she provoke the strongest torrents of rain over Pirarucú, who was fishing along with other indians on the margins of the Tocantins river, not so far from the longhouse.

The fires of Tupã were seen throughout the forest. When Pirarucu saw the wild waters of the river, and heard the voice and felt the hate of Tupã, he just ignored them with a laugh and crazy words. Then, Tupã sent Xandoré, the demon that hates men, who threw lightenings and thunder that filled the air and cut it with sparks. Pirarucu tried to escape, but while he ran among the falling branches and trees, a lightening bolt sent by Xandoré, struck into the heart of the warrior who refused to ask for forgiviness.

All of those who were with Pirarucu ran from the jungle in total fright, while the body of Pirarucu, still alive, was taken to the depths of the Tocantins river and transformed into a giant and dark fish. Pirarucu remained there and for a long time he was the terror of the region.

Nice, huh?

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1890