Tregeab. — On a Name for a Spider. 301 



sure of weight. The Tagal castoli, "musk," is the Sanscrit 

 kasturi, " musk " ; the Tagal bangsi, " a flute," is the Sanscrit 

 vanqi, " a flute." With such words as these the Polynesian 

 language has little affinity ; they are too modern ; but as soon 

 as we get into the shorter and more radical words the Poly- 

 nesian conveys the older form far better than the Tagal does. 

 The Polynesian vaha, " to carry," is far nearer the old root 

 VVAH, " to carry," than the Malay bawa is ; while the Poly- 

 nesian rapa, "to flash" (Aryan, yLAP, " to shine"), and 

 kapa, "to flutter" (Aryan, v'KAP, "to vibrate"), may serve 

 as examples of closer affinity to the ancient root than any 

 Tagal form can show except in the later groups of borrowed 

 words. 



It is not, however, my intention at the present moment to 

 discuss this question, as the evidence is very voluminous, and 

 it is beside the present point, which is, that one of Don Pedro's 

 words, though late Sanscrit, leads to some very interesting 

 disclosures in word -relationship. He points out that the 

 Tagal lalaua, "a spider," is the Sanscrit lalasrawa, "a 

 spider," and that it has taken this form because the letters 

 sra in the middle of a word are very difficult for a Philippine 

 native to pronounce. This may be so, and, if the connection 

 is a fact, supplies us with a valuable link in regard to the 

 unsuspected relationship both of Malay and Polynesian with 

 a Sanscrit word in this instance. The Malay has both laiva- 

 laiva and labalaha as "spider," and the cobweb is called 

 ' sarang-lahalaba in Malacca (sara?igr = " nest "), as in the 

 Sulu Archipelago, where "spider" is laioalaiua, the web is 

 laivai-lawalaioa, a double compound of the word. The Bisaya 

 (another Philippine dialect) has laioa, " a cobweb" ; but where 

 the Tagal word is so valuable is in the first syllable, for the 

 laiva requires the prefixed la to connect it properly with 

 Sanscrit lalasraioa. Monier Williams, in his large Sanscrit 

 dictionary, tells us that lalasrava means' " distilling saliva," 

 and "spider," from a root \/LAL, "to play, sport, to loll 

 the tongue," and hence such words as Idla, "saliva," lalaya, 

 " to emit saliva." But if we admit that the Malay laivalaiua, 

 " the spider," is a variant of the Tagal lalaua, " a spider," or 

 Tagal laioalaiva, "a spider's web," we have also to admit the 

 Lampong lawah, " a spider," the Sangi-Manganitic lelaivah," 

 "a spider," and the Timorese naba, "a spider," because this 

 latter makes a frequent I to 7i change with Malay. The 

 Mal^iy laba becomes Timorese naba by a rule, just as Malay 

 lilm, "wax," becomes Timorese nini. Malay Iwia, "five," 

 is Timorese nima, &c. This is also a Polynesian letter-change, 

 as the Tongan neka, "joy," is the Maori reka ; the Tongan 

 nima, "five," the Polynesian lima; the Hawaiian -z^izwia, "a 

 pillow," the Maori unmga, &c. 



