170 COOK AND cook: the maho or mahagua 



definite indications of human contacts as in the case of kumara, 

 a name for sweet potato already known to have been shared by 

 the Pacific Islanders with the Indians of Peru. 



The name maho or mahagua, with numerous local variants, is 

 widely distributed in tropical America and is closely approxi- 

 mated in many of the Pacific islands, in relation either to the 

 plant itself or to its principal uses for fiber, bark cloth, and fire- 

 making. While the genetic relationships of particular words or 

 applications are to be considered as possible rather than as 

 proved, the general coherence of names and uses would seem to 

 justify a thorough philological investigation. One gains an im- 

 pression of the language being formed in situ, as a reflection of 

 familiar objects and activities in the minds of the islanders. 



That the primitive Polynesians were in possession of the maho 

 before they became acquainted with similar Asiatic plants may 

 be inferred, in view of the indications that Polynesian names of 

 other important cultivated plants — the paper-mulberry (Papy- 

 rius or Broussonetia) , the rose of China (Hibiscus rosa sinensis), 

 and the screw-pine (Pandanus) — were derived from names of the 

 maho. The making of fire by friction of wood and of cloth by 

 beating the bark of trees with grooved mallets are speciahzed 

 arts which may have been carried with the maho from America 

 across the tropical regions of the Old World. A plant that 

 enabled primitive man to kindle fire and tie things together 

 must be held to have contributed much to the arts of civilization. 



