Hi-yi-yi
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Hi-yi-yi (or Hi-Iay) was a fictitious small archipelago in the Pacific Ocean supposedly destroyed by the secret nuclear test of the US military in the 1950s. It was created by Gerolf Steiner, a zoology professor at the University of Heidelberg, to be the habitat of his equally fictitious Rhinogradentia.
Description
The tropical archipelago measured some 1,690 km2 , and the highest peak (2230 m or 7316 feet) was on the main island, Hiddudify (Hy-dud-dye-fee). The islands were
- Annoorussawubbissy
- Osovitissy
- Owsuddowsa
- Noorubbissy
- Miroovilly
- Towteng-Awko
- Nawissy
- Hiddudify
- Naty
- Ownavussa
- Lownunnoia
- Mittuddinna
- Vinsy
- Shanelukha
- Mara
- Lowlukha
- Koavussa
- Awkoavussa
Each island was home to a distinctive fauna, dominated by many species of Rhinogradentia or Snouters – the only mammals in the archipelago, besides humans.
History
Hiddudify was inhabited by the Huacha-Hatchis. The first description of the archipelago published in Europe was provided by Swedish explorer Einar Pettersson-Skämtkvist, who arrived in Hiddudify in 1941, after escaping from a Japanese prisoner of war camp. In the late 1950s, as a consequence of atomic bomb testing, the islands suddenly sank into the ocean, destroying all traces of the snouters.
References
- Harald Stümpke, The Snouters: Form and Life of the Rhinogrades. Translated by Leigh Chadwick. University of Chicago Press (1967).