COOK AND cook: THE MAHO OR MAHAGUA 163 



to- diverge or to spread a report, as analogous to the eventual 

 breaking out of a hidden or smouldering fire. 



In Samoa mafu is to burn, and manj^ Polynesian and Malay 

 words relating to fire might be considered as echoes of the use 

 of the maho for fire-making. Mahao was a Hawaiian name for 

 pith, or for soft, rotten wood. In Wallace's list of Malayan 

 fire-names aow occurs several times, and is accompanied by many 

 similar words, aousa, hao, ahu, afu, yafu, yap, and apt, the last 

 also being widely distributed. In Tahiti aahi is a rag, wick, or 

 lint for use as tinder; while in Hawaii ahu or aahu is a bag in 

 which fire materials were carried. Kindling fire by friction is 

 the meaning of hogi and ogi in Paumotu, and the same islands 

 have vera, viru, and viku as another group of words relating to 

 fire, possibly connected with veru a name for cloth, thi-ough the 

 use of rags as tinder. 



The two sticks of au wood used in bringing fire by friction 

 have separate names in Samoa, the stick with the groove aunaki, 

 that held in the hand aulima, the latter name being applied also 

 to the handle of a tool of any sort. Siaga, another Samoan name 

 for "si large stationary stick used in rubbing fire,", is like siapo, 

 the Samoan name for bark cloth, and sia means 'Ho get fire by 

 rubbing one stick on another." A fire-stick is kounati in Manga- 

 reva and kauati in New Zealand, but in Paumotu kauati is to 

 make fire by friction. The use of fire in clearing land or of 

 sticks for digging may be reflected in such words as inahi, which 

 in Hawaii means to dig the ground for the purpose of planting 

 food. In Paumotu ahu means to transplant, and in New Zea- 

 land to cultivate. Other uses of the wood for carrying burdens 

 and for floating outriggers of canoes, as mentioned by Darwin 

 in Tahiti, are reflected in such words as auamo and aumaka, 

 names for burden-sticks in Samoa; auala, the bier of a dead 

 chief; ama, an outrigger in Samoa, Hawaii, and Paumotu; auma- 

 fute, the Samoan name of the wood of the paper-mulberry after 

 the bark is stripped off; mafuna, meaning to peel off, also in 

 Samoa. The buds and young shoots of the maho were eaten in 

 times of scarcity by the natives of some of the islands, the 

 living tissues being mucilaginous, like those of okra. 



