Hithikoya
Authors: Youla Azkarrula
Hithikoya is an Arawakan constellation name from Lokono. This constellation is referring to spirit of the black currasow.
Etymology and History
Spelling Variants
Origin of Constellation
The constellation Hithikoya is the ‘Spirit of the black curassow’ (Crax alector), a commonly hunted bird, often kept as a pet for its feathers and eggs.[1]
Mythology / Religion
According to a Lokono myth, Hithikoya lived on earth, but the Lokono kept shooting him.[2] As a result, he ascended to the sky to warn black curassows about the approaching hunter (see Yokhârhin) and his companion with a torch (see Alêti). The Lokono identify Hithikoya as the Western constellation Crux. When it appears just above the trees in January, the curassows roam on the ground and are easy to catch. Over the following months, the higher Hithikoya rises in the morning, the higher the birds climb up the trees. By March, it appears high in the sky and the birds are found in the tops of the trees. Hithikoya thus informs the Lokono where to search for the birds at a given time of the year. The Lokono even make hunting charms (bina) from a plant, whose leaves resemble the bird, rubbed into the lips of the hunter so that he can imitate the calls of the bird, increasing his chances of catching one.[3][4]
Weblinks
All HIP Stars within this constellation
IAU Working Group on Star Names
References
- References (general)
- ↑ Rybka, Konrad (online). Lokono sky culture in Stellarium, https://github.com/stellarium/stellarium , printed in Hoffmann and Wolfschmidt (eds., 2022), Astronomy in Culture --Cultures of Astronomy. Astronomie in der Kultur--Kulturen der Astronomie.: Featuring the Proceedings of the Splinter Meeting at the Annual Conference of the Astronomische Gesselschafb Sept. 14-16, 2021, tredition, Ahrensburg (Germany): 706-726.
- ↑ Goeje, Claudius Henricus de. 1942. “De Inwijding Tot Medicijnman Bij de Arawakken (Guyana) in Tekst En Mythe.” Bijdragen Tot de Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië 101: 211–76.
- ↑ Roth, Walter Edmund. 1915. An Inquiry into the Animism and Folk-Lore of the Guiana Indians. Annual Report, Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology 30. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.
- ↑ Penard, Frederik Paul, and Arthur Philip Penard. 1907. De Menschetende Aanbidders Der Zonneslang. Paramaribo: H.B. Heyde.
