Alfred Carrada - The Dictionary Of The Taino Language

ATABEY:

also

YERMAO or

YEMAO= YER/YE: ? MAO: cotton bid shield worn by the cacique;

i.e. protectress

GUACAR=

GUA: art. CAR: bueno; i.e. goodness

APITO =

Dios, diosa

ZUIMACO=

¿

ATABEY:

ATA=

principio, comienzo

ATABA=

principio, comienzo

EY=

pertenece a

(los varios nombres dados a Atabey son denominaciones indicadores de cualidades o estados de la misma)

ATABEY:

Mother of Yucahu.

Goddess of Human Fertility (maternity) and Childbirth. Taino women prayed to her for safe child-birth.

Goddess of the Moon and Ocean tides

Universal Mother

Atabey/Atabeira is often represented with frog legs.

Frogs are often associated with fertility and rain.

The mating call of the frogs is a sign that rain is near and with rainfall comes theplanting season for the yucca. During the rainy season women becomes sexually receptive.

The frog on ceramic decoration is no mere tree frog, but in reality Atabeira, the primival mother.

Atabey’s engraved figurations are clear depictions of frog women, identifiable by the motif of the legs folded under the body.

Atabeira figures prevailed in Haiti. Professor Paul Baker did not find a single Yocahu zemi in his ten years of excavation there. He did find representations of the dog deity OPIYEL-GUAOBIRAN.

Atabey mirrows the Taino matrilineal line of descent and power in their sociaty, where-by the male authority and social inheritance comes from or thru the mother.

Yucahu (who has no father) is the Son of Atabey and therefore he is the supreme God or being in the Taino mythology. In Taino sociaty the Caciquedom and all that goes with it is inherited from the mother.

Atabey is often times shown in the western Hispaniola region (Haiti) with the eyes that are slightly slanted with the clasical coffee bean shape; the eyes are also shown as "round wide open staring eyes" with well defined pupils (shown hollow at times) and also with the so called "goggles".

ATO:

state or condition

[ indica estado o condicion; e.g.:

Jabato= persona tosca o grosera

Jipato= amarillo o palido (enfermo)

Manicato= persona que esta animosa

Ciguato= persona enferma de la ciguatera

Mato= manso, domestico

ATO equivale a decir epatico ]

BA:

verbalizing suffix

[ sufijo verbalizador

donde estan o pertenecen..., donde hay...

condicion que indica estado, forma, etc. ]

BA; in the Eyeri dialect of P.R.; father

[ en el dialecto EYERI de P.R., padre ]

BABA:

superlative of BA.

[ superlativo de BA. 1) respeto 2) antecesor 3) padre de familia ]

BABINEY:

pond of muddly waters

[ lagunato cenagoso de aguas turbias ]

BAGUA:

sea

[ mar ]

BAHAREQUE: humble hut

[ choza pobre y humilde, las mas malas ]

BAI:

suffix that denotes house, dweling

[ sufijo que denota casa, morada ]

BAINA o BEINA: cave

[ caverna, cueva, gruta ]

BAINO:

hill, mountain

[ loma, montana ]

BAIRA:

bow

arco para tirar flechas (en el continente PAIRA; e.g. la peninsula de PAIRA en Venezuela) ]

BAL:

float

[ flotante, flotar ]

BALON:

ball, ball game

[ pelota hecha de la recina de ciertos arboles, usada en el juego del BATO/BATU,juego de pelota ]

BANA:

grand, large place

[ gran lugar, grandeza ]

BAO:

of minor importance

[ de menor importancia ]

BAQUEQUE:

[ chozas, las mas pobres BAY= casa, morada (E)QUEQUE= superlativo de EQUE= menor, pequeno ]

BARA:

sea

[ mar en paraujano (Venezuela) PARA= mar PARARU= costa de mar (seashore) ]

BARANA:

sea, ocean

[ mar, oceano. BARA= mar, oceano NA= ? ]

ATEY:

public square where the ball game was played

[ plaza central donde se jugaba el BATO. BATO/BATU= pelota EY= perteneciente a...

remains of bateys have been found in eastern Cuba, Turks and Caicos (one in Middle Caicos) *,

Hispaniola (26 in Sto. Dom. and 1 in Haiti near the Sto. Dom. border), Mona, Puerto Rico (79 ),

Cuba ( 7), St. Croix** (1) but no sign of ball courts in either St. John or St. Thomas, Vieques and Jamaica. One ball court was found in British Guiana.

There are no reports of bateys in the north-east zone of St. Dom.; i.e. the site of the Cacicazgo of MAGUA (where the historical MACORIX and CIGUAYO lived).

Porto Rico has the richest occurrence of ball courts in the Caribbean area. The Tainan ball court phenomenon seems to have developed in P.R. before 1200 A.D. from where it spread West and East after 1200 A.D.

The rubber balls used in the game were manufactured from the COPEY tree native to the W.I.

The VITOTO indians of Colombia also played the rubber ball game. The principal elements of their game were the moon, the fertility cult and the theme of decapitation. The moon was symbolized by the rubber ball.

Among the WITOT in So. Am. the ball game marks the full moon in the lunar cycle. It has been suggested that the moon appears and disappears on the solstices.