naki

Updated: May 7, 2025

In the reign of King Charles II., which was that of politeness, and the Golden Age of the liberal arts; Otway, in his Venice Preserved, introduces Antonio the senator, and Naki, his courtesan, in the midst of the horrors of the Marquis of Bedemar's conspiracy.

Voltaire - Letters on England

The Yorubans at once recognize the picture; they call the anthropoid "Naki;" and they declare that, when it seizes a man, it tears the fingers asunder. We should not believe so scandalous an assertion without detailed proof; it is hardly fair to make the innocent biped as needlessly cruel as man. It is well known to the natives of the Old Calabar River by the name of "Onion."

Sir Richard Francis Burton - Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 1