164 COOK AND cook: the maho or mahagua 



SYNONYMS OF MAHO WORDS 



That other kinds of words, unhke 7naho or mahagua, share 

 their meanings in some of the islands does not make the parallel 

 series of maho words appear less significant. , Other words for 

 bark, skin, or cloth are kiri, here, kero, iri, or ere, which may 

 connect also with gere, to strip, and goregore, peel or rind, in 

 Paumotu. Kuku or tutu is a widely distributed word for beat- 

 ing or preparing the bark, and in Samoa tutu also means to 

 kindle fire. The principal word for bark cloth is kapa or tapa, 

 which philologists have considered an imitation of the sound of 

 beating the bark, and tutu could be derived in the same way. 



In Samoa, where there are no k's, siapo is the principal name 

 of bark cloth, made from the paper-mulberry, but sema is the 

 name of ''a red siapo," a color which may indicate maho-bark 

 cloth. Bark cloth and fine mats were valuable property among 

 the Samoans and had a collective name, toga, and tolo is another 

 Samoan word for kindling fire by friction. Nets or cords to 

 make them were called kupenga in New Zealand, kupega in Man- 

 gareva and Paumotu, and hupena in Hawaii, the last a curious 

 approximation to the Greek hyphaino, to weave, and hypha, a 

 thread. 



The mallet for beating cloth is called ike, eike, or ie, and simi- 

 lar words mean to strike, defend, choose, select, or send. In 

 addition to this ike the Paumotu people have iku, to rub, rasp, or 

 to file; ika, to make fire by friction of wood; rotika, fire; roroni, 

 to twist or wring; rori, to strangle with a cord; rorirori, pliant, 

 flexible, or supple; rore, seductive or deluding. In Maori, rore 

 is a snare, according to Tregear. The series may belong with the 

 maho words, to which it runs closely parallel. 



DERIVATIVE PLANT NAMES IN POLYNESIA 



That the maho was an ancient possession of the island people 



is also to be inferred from the borrowing of its name for other 



plants, including three prominent cultivated species that un- 



. doubtedly were natives of Asia or the Malay region. From the 



manner of naming these plants it appears that the islanders 



