THE PAUMOTU IN THE POLYNESIAN SCHEME. 51 



in this consideration is the position, geographical and ethnographical, 

 of a second and parallel extrusion chain. This extends from Palm- 

 erston, which is unimportant, at its northwest tip; its importance begins 

 for our present purpose with the Hervey Islands and with Rarotonga in 

 particular; thence it stretches through the Tubuai or Austral Group to 

 Rapa and Maretiri, which lie farther south of the tropic than any island 

 of Polynesia save New Zealand, of later settlement. 



In this chain I find the second station of the Tongafiti migration after 

 its expulsion from Samoa, its center of distribution to the seats of the 

 present great settlements of this swarm. In advancing upon this chain 

 it is possible that the Tongafiti found a population of Proto-Samoans. 

 Such an antecedent population need not have been dense, for its origin 

 would have come from minor voyages of adventure. But the Tongafiti 

 advance upon them would be in considerable numbers. As to this we 

 have the most positive statement in Samoa. When Savea and his 

 brothers had chased the Tongafiti the length of 'Upolu, from Mutiatele 

 to Mulifanua, the vanquished sailed away in a body. Before such an 

 advance in force, and with the memory still fresh of past suffering, the 

 earlier settlers of this midocean chain would certainly take refuge in 

 flight, and the next halting-place must be Tahiti and the Paumotu. 



With these considerations we may pass to the detailed study of what 

 the speech of the Paumotu may disclose. 



The alphabet of the Paumotu in its relation to the Proto-Samoan, so 

 far as it is based on the comparable data assembled in this Rapanui dic- 

 tionary, is set forth in the following table, wherein the bold-faced type 

 designates the Proto-Samoan alphabet and the italic the Paumotu 

 equivalent. 



The most superficial examination will show how slight is the devia- 

 tion. Except for the mutation of sibilant to aspirate the Paumotu 

 alphabet is closer to the original than is the modern Samoan. There- 

 fore our study of the phonetic form of this speech should proceed with 

 particular care in every detail of ascertainable source of the complex of 

 elements. 



The data in this work in which Paumotu words are employed in com- 

 parison with Rapanui, and, in such conjunction, with other languagesof 

 Southeast Polynesia, but without identification in more distant lan- 

 guages, are noted in the following tables : 



