INTRODUCTION. 7 



The speech of Tahiti is presented to us in the work of its Apostolic 

 Vicar, Monsignor Tepano Jaussen, Bishop of Axieri in partibus in- 

 fidelium, "Grammaire et Dictionnaire de la Langue Maorie, Dialecte 

 Tahitien, Paris, Neia i te Neneiraa no Belin, 1898." This approxi- 

 mates 6,200 entries in the Tahitian vocabulary, and the collation of 

 the French-Tahitian section will add considerably to the number. 



For the Marquesas we are indebted to its Apostolic Vicar, Mon- 

 signor I. R. Dordillon, Bishop of Cambysopolis, also in partibus, 

 "Grammaire et Dictionnaire de la langue des lies Marquises, Paris, 

 Imprimerie Belin Freres, 1904." It contains about 12,000 Marquesan 

 entries, with the same note as to the collation of the other half of the 

 work. 



These two represent an advanced state of the knowledge of the 

 respective languages, for each is based upon and is designed to supplant 

 earlier and now inaccessible vocabularies. 



For the speech of Mangareva we find our authority in Edward 

 Tregear, an indefatigable worker in Polynesian linguistics. Under the 

 authority of the New Zealand Institute he compiled "A Dictionary 

 of Mangareva or Gambier Islands, Wellington, 1899." This contains 

 some 6,600 Mangarevan entries and lacks a check vocabulary in 

 English. The source of this material is not set forth, but it is the 

 work of the French missionaries.* 



The same authority gives us, and from similar sources, a dictionary 

 of the Paumotu, which may be found in continuous numbers of the Jour- 

 nal of the Polynesian Society in the second, third, and fourth volumes. 

 It contains about 2,500 entries and lacks the check vocabulary. 



For the language which forms the principal theme of the present 

 volume we have " Vocabulaire de la Langue de l'lle-de-Paques ou Rapa- 

 nui, par le R. P. Hippolyte Roussel, de la Congregation des Sacres- 

 Cceurs de Picpus, missionnaire a l'lle-de-Paques. " In "Le Museon, " 

 published at Lou vain in 1908, this occupies 95 pages, of which 80 

 are given to a French-Rapanui dictionary. The fullest credit must be 

 given to this work as the basis of the present volume in the fundamental 

 material. I have translated it into English, since by far the majority 

 of the vocabularies of Polynesian speech are given in English terms 

 and it makes for convenience to adopt this as the standard. I have 

 compiled therefrom a dictionary of Rapanui-English and a check vocab- 

 ulary to facilitate comparison by students into whose hands it may 

 come. With this I have incorporated two brief vocabularies earlier 

 printed and such material as was of my own acquisition from trust- 

 worthy sources in the South Sea. 



The two added vocabularies (they are really mere word-lists) are 

 to be found in Geiseler (84 entries) and in Thomson (467 entries). 



*Too late for use in these studies I have the grammar and dictionary of Mangareva of 

 the Catholic missionaries published in 1908. 



