An example search has returned 100 entries
ategnaijaig pok nelcau
v.n. sail from shore
bookmarkcustard apple
n. tree, 5 m tall (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #3520)
Example: Children sometimes eat this fruit but it smells bad. Adults do not eat it. An introduced species so there is no local name.
bookmarkehgin
adj. afar
bookmarkehpai
v. to peel off bark
bookmarkereinmerei
n. the clear part of the moon when first seen
bookmarkEt elwa intisiaicai
phr. the flowers are come out.
bookmarkijumgan nijomcan
n. small tree, 1-2 m tall (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #4020)
Example: 1. The name of this plant translates as bad tooth, and relates to its use as a plant used to poison others. If one wants to commit an evil act against another, he or she will rub the leaves together and squeeze them over the targets food. It will make their teeth rotten and fall off quickly. More information witheld.
bookmarkimehei
n. pandanus leaf
bookmarkincei u nasuantan
n. herb to 1 m, flowers blue. In transitional zone from pine forest to ’primary’ forest. (collection: Michael J. Balick #4982)
Example: This is used to treat Ciguatera disease when a person eats fish that is contaminated. Squeeze juice from a handful of leaves of this herb into a cup, add a small amount of water, and drink 1 cup once a day for 3 days, or continue until the person feels better. This illness is a problem on Aneityum with the reef fish. It is better to eat fish that are farther out to sea. This treatment is also used for dogs who eat contaminated fish. Make the same preparation and forcibly pour this in their mouth as they will not drink it willingly. Do this treatment once daily until the dog feels better. The dogs get this illness because they are fed the scraps, especially the bones of the fish, and this is thought to be where the disease is found. This is considered to be a dangerous illness and dogs who get it frequently die.
bookmarkinceimohos
incetevak
n. Pink Squirrelfish
Example: Photo by Jeffrey T. Williams / Smithsonian Institution, License: CC BY-SA 3.0 via Fishes of Australia
bookmarkincispev
n. tree. Growing in village garden. (collection: Ashley A McGuigan #19)
Example: 1. To cure the sea snake (nispev) curse that causes missed periods. First the husband must combine 4 young leaves of incispev and 4 young leaves of nafanu and mash and squeeze the juice into a small bamboo (1-1.5 inch diameter) The nafanu is important because it is a plant that connects to the sea. Use wildcane leaves cover the bamboo closed. Go to the sick person and unwrap the snake from her. Start from the top and let the woman drink a small part of the potion then wash her with the mixture, making sure to wash head, elbows, knees, feet, and belly. Then take a leaf of naha and break it over the woman’s belly button to break the snake off. Smash the bamboo vessel to pieces. Leave the woman there until the wash dries on her. This takes one whole day and the ceremony in the evening so she can sleep and she must not eat. This ritual is performed by men.
bookmarkincowos up̃utap̃
indijinecei
n. Whitespotted surgeonfish, southern dialect
Example: Photo by Jeffrey T. Williams / Smithsonian Institution, License: CC BY-SA 3.0 via Fishes of Australia
bookmarkinhulec ~ iɣleɣ
[inhuleɣ] n. Yellow-throated White-eye
Example: Illustration by John Gerrard Keulemans / Wikimedia Commons, License: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
bookmarkink
n. vine, growing in disturbed forest. Fruits green. (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #3470)
Example: A man named Johnnie (Reuben’s grandfather) brought this vine to Aneityum to use it as a rope to tie objects. The ripe fruits are used to paint the face and hands and children make drawings from this dye.
bookmarkinlepei u inpoded
inmauwad picad
n. a convolvulus with white flowers; also "inmauwad ahi"
bookmarkinmehei ipciv
n. kind of banana
bookmarkintijganeno
n. shrub. Found in the village Unames. (collection: Ashley A McGuigan #33)
Example: name = "stonefish ears" 1. To treat rashes - boil 4 leaves in water ad wait until it cools. Wash in this once a day until rash goes away. 2. Stonefish sting – very painful: 1 handful of leaves with squeezed coconut juice – coconut water – from green coconut. Mix the leaves and water and then make a cut in the wound to enlarge it and pour this juice into the wound. In 5-10 minutes the pain will stop, use 1x, very powerful. 3.If a person such as a mother touches the stonefish while preparing it for food, then does not wash hands, can infect a child – and the child will get sores. Take a small branch and boil it in the water and wash the baby with it to make pain go away. 4. Stonefish is a greatly appreciated food that must be prepared carefully by holding the fish by the mouth and not touching the body. Boil the fish to inactivate the poison and then prepare it as a normal fish for cooking. Poison is found in top spine of fish.
bookmarkinwouasan
n. liana climbing on Syzygium, growing along ridge in dense rainforest. Latex white (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #4079)
bookmarkinwoudec
n. liana climbing on large Dillenia tree, growing in primary forest at edge of river. flower white. (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #3677)
Example: If a person is building a temporary house and has no other way of attaching the poles, collect the vine of this species, roll it a bit to break the fiber, heat it in a figure 8 form and then use for tying poles while warm.
bookmarkinyapwit
n. kind of tree
bookmarknadiat meto
n. the middle of the forenoon
bookmarknagagnit
n. Harlequin sweetlips, many-spotted sweetlips
Example: Photo by Mark Rosenstein / iNaturalist.org, License: CC BY-SA 3.0 via Fishes of Australia
bookmarknahar
n. species of pine
bookmarknala
n. tree to 7 m, dbh 20 cm (collection: Michael J. Balick #4860)
Example: This is a common tree. If a person travels from one district to another on Aneityum, and you see the tree planted in that other district, a person knows they are free to come into this area. When the leaves are yellow, as in a young tree, the local name is nala’gay. If a person carries a branch of this tree into a village it is a symbol that the person is coming with peaceful intentions.
bookmarknamlau
namou
namp̃owei
n. terrestrial fern, growing in secondary forest along the river. Fronds dimorphic. (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #3644)
Example: This is a sacred plant, it will keep crops, such as foods, in good condition and protect people from famine and loss of crops. It grows wild along the river and people leave it there and also move the plants to the house along with Terminalia fruiticosa and other unspecified plants for use in protecting their crops. For example, when people go to the garden, they take their planting stick and place it near these plants for a while, and being near it will help protect the garden as a person then works with their planting stick to plant the garden.
bookmarknapaeicei
napisinijvaig
n. kind of sugarcane
bookmarknapleañ
napuleman
n. kind of banana
bookmarknap̃ojev
n. well branched tree, 14 m tall (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #3651)
Example: Poles made from this plant are used for house rafters and burned for firewood. To plant taro in a swampy area, collect the leaves of this species and put them in the hole where the taro is to be planted, mix with a bit of soil and then plant the taro on top of that. Leaves are a type of fertilizer. Used when baking with the earth oven. Hot stones cover the food and then the leaves from this plant cover the stones. The leaves stay on the branch.
bookmarknarijo
n. epiphytic fern on decaying log, growing in dense rainforest. (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #4088)
Example: 1. Considered the same as Narijo. When it grow in good soil it takes the form of GMP 4087. In cold and rocky soil it this form.
bookmarknauyerop
n. species of sycamore (117); a sycamore fig (97)
bookmarknecñopod
n. shrub, 1 m tall (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #3512)
Example: This plant is used as fertilzer to place on bottom of the taro patch in the same way as GMP #3456 to help "feed the ground" for next year. The leaves are used to wrap food. When a person is chewing kava, pile the chewed kava roots on the young leaves of this species. Also, an unspecified medicinal use.
bookmarkneiang
neihon
n. a chewing of wood, and spitting it on sick people, to cure them; also "naihon"
bookmarknejomti
nepilvan
n. tender shoots
bookmarknepnou
nerophat
n. Bluefin trevally (male) (reef fish)
Example: Photo by Jan Messersmith, License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 via Fishes of Australia
bookmarknete
n. kind of tree
bookmarknetet
n. the name of a tree
bookmarknethokin
n. a poisonous plant used to stupefy fish; also "netokin"
bookmarkneusjai
n. a fern tree
bookmarkniegred
nijinga
n. shrub to 2 m, flowers blue-purple. Red clay soil (collection: Michael J. Balick #4878)
Example: A stem of this shrub is sharpened and used to dig a hole for planting kava. When a person plants kava in a hole made from this stick, there is the belief that it will make kava root stems strong and large. The fruits are edible when ripe and said to be sweet.
bookmarkniperap
n. kind of plant, grass, or fern
bookmarknirak
nirid u numu
n. terrestrial fern on forest floor, growing in disturbed forest. (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #3482)
Example: People who go fishing take this plant along with other unspecified leaves, crush them and rub them on the fishing line that the person is using. This is said to attract more fish to the bait. It is also a "message plant" to be put in a person’s hat when they come back from fishing and then people know that they caught fish. Local name means "fish gill." For performing a weather magic ritual to produce fog, this plant is fermented along with another plant (nap̃at) in a hole in a sacred stone (called "Naemoso") at a secret location on Aneityum.
bookmarknitschatimi
n. Cordyline fruticosa L.
Example: Leaf: chew (leprosy in mouth). Whole plant: planted for several Kastom purposes; many important Kastom-bound uses as magical or ornamental plant throughout Melanesia.
bookmarknitsichäi
n. Hornstedtia sp.
Example: Subterranean part: cold maceration, taken internally against "cancer", diabetes, or as tonic
bookmarknohoanma
n. breadfruit; also "nohwanma"
bookmarknomotan
n. Spangled emperor
Example: Photo by Richard Ling, License: CC BY-SA 3.0 via Fishes of Australia
bookmarknowanu
n. Longfin African conger, moustache conger
Example: Photo by Patrick Randall, License: CC BY-SA 3.0 via Fishes of Australia
bookmarknupsinhodaeñ
nupunyepec
nuput, noho’ich
n. cultivated anthropogenic landscape (lawn and planted trees). (collection: Keith E. Clancy #6655)
bookmarkpakauoc
adj. unripe
bookmarkpudvel
tatau
n. Bigeye barracuda
Example: Photo by Philippe Guillaume, License: CC BY-NC 3.0 via Fishes of Australia
bookmarkubos
adv. by land; on land
bookmark


