17, 4 Merrill: Comments on Cook’s Theory 383 
series is a great deal more likely than the maho origin, and 
infinitely more probable in view of the generally accepted theo- 
ries as to the origin and migrations of the Polynesians. It is, 
moreover, not, as these authors contend, in violent opposition to 
the known distribution and occurrence in nature of the species 
under discussion. 
Mr. Schneider is in full agreement with the bago or baru 
origin of the Polynesian mao series. He considers that one of 
the weakest spots in Cook’s argument is the expressed doubt 
that the Fijian vahu, the Philippine balibago, and the Guam pago 
belong to the mao series. He states that the very wide distri- 
bution of the bago form in the Indo-Malayan region indicates 
that it is as near as we can get to the original root, whatever 
that may be. The fact that r, g, and h are interchangeable in 
certain series of words in most of the Indo-Malayan languages is 
as well established as is any of Grimm’s laws in the European 
languages. He considers that there can be hardly any doubt 
that the Indian baru is identical with the Philippine bago. The 
final disappearance of the h when intervocalic is not uncommon 
in Tagalog and in other Philippine languages. Guam p for Phil- 
ippine b is perfectly regular, as is v. Finally, the weakening 
of initial b to m is very common—for example, the plant names 
banaba, manaba; binunga, minunga; batavia, matavia; and, as to 
malabago itself, this is apparently nothing but a reduplicated 
form with weakened initial b, of which other examples are to be 
found, such as matobato. 
As to the meaning and application of the name maho, Mr. 
Schneider further points out that, whether it was originally the 
name of some bast-producing plant that was also applied to 
others that either produced bast or resembled them in external 
appearance, or a word primarily meaning “bast” and “to tie,” 
is perhaps a question which cannot be decided and, moreover, 
is of no great importance. The wide distribution of the word 
has nothing to do with this, however, the following notes in- 
dicating what seems to him to be a more probable alternative, 
namely, that “bast’’ is the original meaning of the word maho, 
Bago, to use now a Philippine name, is one of the most commonly 
used names for Gnetum gnemon, the bast of which is probably 
the strongest found in the Philippines and used wherever very 
strong cordage is desired. Salago, in which the same root oc- 
curs, is widely used for species of Wikstroemia and Phaleria, both 
producing a very fine and extremely tough bast. A parallel 
case is that of the other name, hanot, cited above for Hibiscus 
