542 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



in sufficient numbers to constitute spots. I consulted Mr. 

 Colenso on this matter, and he rephed, "It means an inferior, 

 or common, or less-esteemed kind of face-tattoo. ' Kuri ' is 

 added adjectively to several words in Maori, generally mean- 

 ing as alDOve (having nothing to do with their kuri = dog) — 

 much, indeed, like our English use of the term ' horse ' as 

 in 'horse-chestnut,' * horse-mint,' 'horse-mackerel,' 'horse- 

 laugh,' &c." Mr. Colenso is not with me ; but there is yet no 

 certain proof that the tattoo was not copied from the dog's 

 markings. A horse-trough and horse-cloth are certainly con- 

 nected with the horse. And it is rather remarkable, in taking 

 the skin from a wild pig, I noticed that the arrangement of 

 the hair-follicles, as seen on the under-side, were almost 

 invariably in threes, and closely resembled the viokokuri 

 tattoo, and showing as parallel lines. Most of the Pacific 

 islands w^ere supplied with pigs when the first European ships 

 arrived, so that, if " kuri " included pigs, the skin of the pig 

 might originate the markings of viokokuri. But this is hardly 

 probable, for the natives seldom remove the skin : still, the 

 incident is worth recording. To return to the word " curtail," 

 mentioned above, I had not then seen a copy of Skeat, but I 

 will now quote his definition, and leave you to judge between 

 us as to whether it is a dog-word or no : "" ' Curtail,' a French 

 word derived from Latin. It has nothing to do wdth ' tail,' 

 but is a corruption of the older form curtal, verb, to dock, 

 from the adjective curtal, having a docked tail (' All's Well,' 

 ii.. 3, 65); old French, courtault ; later, courtaut, 'curtal, 

 being curtailed' (Cot.). The same as Itahan cortaldo, 'a 

 curtail, a horse sans taile ' (Florio). Formed with suffix auU 

 ( = Italian, alclo ; Low Latin, alclus ; from German wald, 

 power), from old French court, short, from Latin curtus, 

 short."* I would have you notice that the word "tail" 

 occurs four times in this paragraph. In fact, it seems all 

 about the tail and the shortening thereof. Possibly the word 

 is " curt-tail "= short tail; but why not " cur-tail," or dog- 

 tailed ? Most of us know that a breed of dogs are born with 

 little or no tail, as also are Manx cats ; therefore " curtail" 

 came to mean docked or shortened tail. We do not say 

 "curt-ail" or " curt-al," but "cur-tail" and " cur-tal." If 

 not allowed either the cur or the tail, the whole word seems 

 lost. 



I hope it may not seem irrelevant to the subject of this 

 paper if further remarks are made on the European dog. It 



* Again, Skeat says, " ' Dock,' to curtail (Celtic ?). Perhaps from 

 Welsh tocio, to clip, dock ; chief form, tocyn, a short piece." Here we 

 find ci and cy, Welsh for dog. "'Dock,' a basin for ships; Danish, 

 dokke; Swedish, cZocA'a; Low Latin, dogra, a ditch, also a cup." Compare 

 M.E. cloggc, A.S. docka, a dog. 



