Tregear. — Oil a Name for a Spider. 299 



interpretation of and reason for our own distant forefathers' 

 thought and behef, should only provoke a smile. We may be 

 unintentionally misled also by the native himself, who, unless 

 exceptionally well informed, may give us his explanation, and 

 be therein as thoroughly mistaken as we should be in some 

 wild guess of our own. Take, for instance, cannibalism, and 

 hear it explained by different observers and inquirers. One, 

 after talkmg with native cannibals, explains that it arose 

 from the desire for revenge ; another because the courage, 

 strength, &c., of the dead man can be inherited by the person 

 eating the body. Still another teaches that it originated in 

 scarcity of food. In fact, each native supplying the informa- 

 tion believes that he is telling the truth, but he is absolutely 

 ignorant of the reason why, perhaps ten thousand years 

 before, his ancestors began their indulgence in human food. 

 It may have arisen at funeral ceremonies, where, as in 

 Hawaii, a dead chief was devoured by his own family only, 

 or it may have been through some mysterious rite of com- 

 munion, such as "eating the god," known to different bar- 

 baric peoples. In any case the origin is wrapped in mystery 

 and the dusty cloud caused by the procession of countless 

 centuries. Customs, beliefs, usages of savages should all be 

 carefully noted and recorded ; but the deductions, the theories 

 of origins, &c., arising therefrom should be very carefully and 

 thoughtfully considered. 



If this is true in the realm of anthropology, still more 

 cautious should be the inquiry into the realm of etymology. 

 I believe that the man who gives an authoritative etymology 

 of any word at all is a very bold man, and if he does so out- 

 side the lines of historic linguistics he is even a reckless man. 

 Take up an English etymological dictionary written by a 

 master and note how often he has to write "derivation un- 

 known." Then, again, how short are some of the etymo- 

 logical pedigrees ; they reach back two or three centuries and 

 then are lost. Again, there are those words which, though 

 not bearing the label " derivation unknown," plainly show 

 that they ought to have such a label, for their explanation is 

 evidently pure guesswork. Even of those words which in the 

 hands of men like Professor Skeat are the most reliable in the 

 language, again and again there are instances where results 

 have to be altered in the light of later knowledge, so that an 

 etymological dictionary twenty years old is a thing to be 

 handled with discretion. If, then, it can be said of the 

 classical or the European languages that their etymologists 

 are daring men, it is borne in upon the student that one who 

 gives at present any Polynesian etymologies is simply a fool. 

 Of course, I do not allude to mere translations or explana- 

 tions of words. It may be, for instance, quite true that the 



