Tregeab. — On a Name for a Spider. 303 



motuan nape, "to weave," "a tress or plait," and in the 

 Samoan wa^^e, "to be entangled," /a'a-7ja_/j)e, "to tie loosely. "'•= 

 If the final vowel be objected to, I would point out that the 

 Samoan nape, " to be entangled," has another form [lave or 

 Lavelave, "to be intertwined, intricate"), and that Lorrin 

 Andrews, in his Hawaiian dictionary, shows that laioa is 

 sometimes lawe, as in laivaia, "to take fish," from latve, "to 

 take." and ia (Maori ika) "fish." In another Hawaiian ex- 

 ample we have lawelua, " to tie up a second time," which is 

 from laioa, "to tie up," and lua "twice." Also the Tongan 

 lalava,' " to bind with sinnet," is the equivalent of Samoan 

 fa'a-lave, "to take a turn of a rope round something," and 

 Sunda (Java) laice, "thread for weaving." 



It is, however, in metathesis that the strangest confirma- 

 tion of the connection comes out. In the Motu (a Polynesian 

 dialect in New Guinea) valavala, "a cobweb," we have an 

 exact transposition of lavalava, and this valavala varies in 

 other places with velevele or werewere in a dozen curious ways. 

 In the Maori pungaivereioere, "a spider" (also puaivereioere 

 and pmoereivere) ; in the Tahitian p)uaverevere, " a cobweb " 

 and "gauze"; in Marquesan punaveevee, "spider" and 

 "cobweb"; and M.?i;ngaAa>n pungaverevere, "a cobweb," we 

 have one form. In the Samoan apugaleveleve, "spider" and 

 " cobweb " ; in the Tongan kaleveleve, " a large spider " ; and 

 Futuna kaleveleve, "a spider" and its "web," we have the 

 other. But to make assurance doubly sure we have also the 

 Sinangolo (New Guinea) kavalavala, " a cobweb," which is 

 the original vowel again. In the Paumotuan ptigaverevere 

 means " cloth," again showing the connection between the 

 cobweb and weaving. The kaleveleve, " a spider," above 

 noted, has its Hawaiian affinity in kaioeleioele, " the names of 

 certain short ropes about a canoe," and " the beard " ; but in 

 this dialect j^unaivelezuele is the " spider" and its "web " as 

 before, but with an addition well worth notice, for Lorrin 

 Andrews gives us an etymology of a sister-word. He says, 

 " Punawele, to be small in size, to be fine, as threads of 

 spiders' webs. From pii and naicele, to be fine or small." I 

 cannot help thinking this derivation doubtful, because puna- 

 puna means " made fine, scattered, blown away," and punaiue 

 " to divide," which latter is a form of puu-nautoe, "to divide 

 into parts or parcels," evidently from pim, " to heap up," 

 which, in its causative form lioo-puu (Maori tvliaka-puku) 

 means " to heap up, as stones, to cast lots, to divide a country 



* Probably also in the Aneityumese nap, " a native mat," and napa- 

 vias, " bark cloth," or taya ; na-pevak or napavak, " a native mat " ; but 

 these are doubtful, because the initial n may here be a remnant of the 

 prefix of nouns which we find as imvai for " water " (the Maori ^va^), &c. 



