Corsa

A rudimentary drag vehicle used in Madeira solely for carrying loads. It is drawn by oxen, contrary to the claims of Portuguese lexicographers, who describe it as pulled by people and used to carry passengers. It consists simply of a wooden plank ten palmos long and two wide. At its front end there is an opening through which passes a strap that ties it to the pole, which is known by the extravagant name of solas. The plank is almost always of til (Ocotea foetens, Madeiran laurel) wood and sometimes of loquat or mulberry; the pole, or solas, is made of pine, and the yoke and its bows of loquat or til. The edges of the plank’s upper surface are fitted with strips of wood, while the underside, which drags along the ground, is sometimes lined with two iron plates.

It is used in the Canary Islands under the same name, an interesting fact that bears witness to the exchange of customs between the peoples of the two archipelagos in times long past.

The term is perhaps, it may be said, the only genuinely Portuguese word for a drag vehicle. We believe it worthy of acceptance as standard Portuguese, all the more so because it seems to derive from the Latin cursus. There is therefore no reason to spurn it and replace it, as is often done in Madeira itself, with the word zorra, which should in general be applied to a certain wheeled vehicle and only in a very restricted sense to a drag cart.

Nor can it be replaced by the word trenó, of French origin, which means a wheelless vehicle for travelling on ice, an object that in any case does not exist in the climate of Portuguese lands.

The regional word corsa (wheelless wooden sledge), which seems to have no equivalent in the language, should perhaps be granted national standing and raised to the rank of standard Portuguese, subject to the opinion of the proper authorities.

Dr Hans Sloane, who visited Madeira in 1687, mentions the corsa, and it is likely that this vehicle already existed on the island in the early days of colonisation.