62 cook's first voyage march, 



use more letters to produce the same sound than the 

 other. 



I must also observe, that it is the genius of the 

 language, especially in the southern parts, to put 

 some article before a noun, as we do the or a ; the 

 articles used here were generally he or ko ; it is also 

 common here to add the word oeia after another 

 word as an iteration, especially if it is an answer to 

 a question ; as we say^ yes indeed, to be sure, really, 

 certainly : this sometimes led our gentlemen into 

 the formation of words of an enormous length, judg- 

 ing by the ear only, without being able to refer each 

 sound into its signification. An example will make 

 this perfectly understood. 



In the Bay of Islands there is a remarkable one, 

 called by the natives Matuaro. One of our gentle- 

 men having asked a native the name of it, he answer- 

 ed, with the particle, Kematuaro ; the gentleman 

 hearing the sound imperfectly, repeated his question, 

 and the Indian repeating his answer, added oeia, 

 which made the word Kematuarooeia ; and thus it 

 happened that in the log book I found Metuaro 

 transformed into Cumettiwarroweia : and the same 

 transformation by the same means, might happen to 

 an English word. Suppose a native of New Zealand 

 at Hackney church, to inquire " What village is 

 this ?" the answer would be, " It is Hackney :" sup- 

 pose the question to be repeated with on air of doubt 

 and uncertainty, the answer might be, " it is Hack- 

 ney indeed," and the New Zealander, if he had the 

 use of letters, would probably record, for the inform- 

 ation of his countrymen, that during his residence 

 among us he had visited a village called " Ityshak 

 neeindede." The article used by the inhabitants of 

 the South Sea islands, instead of he or ko, is to or ta, 

 but the word oeia is common to both ; and when we 

 began to learn the language, it led us into many ridi- 

 culous mistakes. 



But supposing these islands, and those in the South 



