Just as Yucatan in Mayan means, "I don't understand what you're saying."

- Pam
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Callan" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 08:53
Subject: Re: [BP] Names of Place


> Hmmmmmm.  That's kind of amazing.  Is that what is going on here?  New
> maps?
>
> -jc
>
> On Jan 18, 2005, at 7:43 AM, Gabriel Orgrease wrote:
>
> > ...he had to get started on another trek into the countryside to survey
> > the population and economy, and the geography as well. He unrolled the
> > official maps of the country [British colonial Nigeria] which he was to
> > survey, an area fairly new to him, and found that although they were
> > all
> > "white, clean & new," they were completely useless:
> >
> > "Towns abandoned for years are entered in large letters, generally by
> > the wrong names — the towns that do exist aren't there — magnificent
> > roads on the map are mere jungle in reality, and new important highways
> > have been left out. Mountains are just put in with the eyes shut. I
> > shall have to start mapping at once, as I have to send in maps with my
> > reports."
> >
> > (23 October 1918).
> >
> > During his last tour he might have despaired over the useless maps and
> > cursed the men who made them and the government which issued them, but
> > now he treated the whole affair as a joke as he saw its ridiculous
> > aspects. Apparently the "wrong names" that he mentions were the same
> > sort of mistake he used in his novel /Castle Corner/, when Cock Jarvis
> > is mapping in Nigeria. They were the fault of the language barrier, for
> > the natives who were questioned about the names of their towns and
> > rivers and mountains simply didn't know what was going on. So onto the
> > official maps of Nigeria went What Did He Say? River and the town of I
> > Don't Know. In early November Joyce set out to draw up his own maps.
> >
> > Joyce Cary, a Biography, by Malcolm Foster, p 178-179
> >
> > --
> > To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
> > uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
> > <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
> >
>
> --
> To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
> uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
> <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
>

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>