A paca is a member of the genus Cuniculus of ground-dwelling, herbivorous rodents in South and Central America. It is the only genus in the family Cuniculidae. Pacas are large rodents with dots and stripes on their sides, short ears, and barely visible tails. Pacas are eaten by people in Belize, where they are known as "gibnut" and, having been served to Queen Elizabeth II, "the royal rat". In the Amazon basin they are known as "majás". In Guyanese English, it is known as labba from Arawak.
Paca
Paca
Foraging pacas in Costa Rica
Old Tupi, Ancient Tupi or Classical Tupi is a dead Tupian language which was spoken by the aboriginal Tupi people of Brazil, mostly those who inhabited coastal regions in South and Southeast Brazil. In the words of Brazilian tupinologist Eduardo Navarro, "it is the classical indigenous language of Brazil, and the one which had the utmost importance to the cultural and spiritual formation of the country".
Joseph of Anchieta (1534–1597), the first grammarian of Tupi, as envisioned by Antônio Parreiras
Facsimile of the Art of Grammar of the Most Used Language on the Coast of Brazil
Although the martial art is of African origin, the word "capoeira" comes from Tupi, more precisely from ka'a-pûer-a, which means "forest that was". Painting by Johann Moritz Rugendas (1835)
The Lord's Prayer as in the Catechism in the Brasílica Language (1618)