166 COOK AND cook: the maho or mahagua 



relative of the maho, with the same kind of large showy flowers 

 which render it a favorite garden shrub among the Polynesians. 

 It was as natural that the rose of China should be called aute 

 on account of its flowers as the paper-mulberry on account of 

 its bark, but almost inconceivable that either of the two plants 

 called aide should have been named directly from the other. 

 Two Fijian names of the rose of China, senitoa or seniciobia, 

 show no resemblance to the Polynesian names. 



names of the screw-pines 



Another prominent plant with a name that may have been 

 borrowed from the maho is the Pandanus, or screw-pine, called 

 by the Hawaiians hala or halau and by the Samoans fala, names 

 that may be understood as hau-lesii or fau-lesii, and that appear 

 proper enough when we take into account the fact that the long 

 narrow leaves of the Pandanus are rich in fiber, and were woven 

 or braided into mats or used in other ways like the bark of the 

 maho or paper-mulberry. From Fiji Seemann reports voivoi as 

 a native name of Pandanus caricosus, the species that is culti- 

 vated for the sake of its fine fiber, and vaku vaku for Freycinetia 

 milnei, a screw-pine with edible fruit. Another name for Pan- 

 danus, possibly cognate with maho, is tima, in Paumotu, where 

 man means thread or to join. Timau may be analogous to 

 maute, the name of the paper-mulberry in Easter Island, and is 

 also similar to tamau, the word for tinder in Easter Island. 



other POLYNESIAN PLANTS WITH MAHO NAMES 



In addition to these prominent species, maho names are ap- 

 plied in Polynesia to several other trees or shrubs Thus among 

 the New Zealanders, who did not have the true maho, one of 

 the indigenous trees (Melicytus ramiflorus) is called 7nahoe, and 

 the same word is used, according to Tregear, for "a small mallet 

 used for striking the tattooing chisel." Mahoewai is* another 

 New Zealand tree name, which also means 'Ho spread out," 

 while mahore means ''peeled." 



The Samoans give the name faupata to a native plant, Cypho- 

 lopus macrocephalus, related to ramie, used for weaving fine 



