Hi-yi-yi

Hi-yi-yi (or Hi-aiy) was a fictitious archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, 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 largest peak (2,230 m) 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 the 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 camp.

In the late 1950s, as a consequence of atomic bomb testing, the islands sank suddenly into the ocean, destroying all traces of the snouters.

References

*Harald Stümpke, "". Translated by Leigh Chadwick. University of Chicago Press (1967).