Tbegeae. — On the Extinction of the Moa. 419 



Fiji- 



Toa, a fowl. — Boa, the heart of a tree. 

 Melanesian : Futuna — Toa, to fight. (2.) The ironwood 



tree. 

 Efate — Toa, the domestic fowl. 

 Malo — Toa, the domestic fowl. 

 S.E. Api — Toa, the domestic fowl. 

 Sesake — Toa, the domestic fowl. 

 Pentecost — Toa, the domestic fowl. 

 Espiritu Santo — Toa, the domestic fowl. 

 Lepers' Island — Toa, the domestic fowl. 



We have here a word of far wider distribution than 

 kokoroko ; but it is of peculiar distribution. In Polynesia 

 the wide meanings are — (1) Brave, victorious; and (2) the 

 ironwood tree. I consider that this is a case where the 

 etymology is plain, and, although it is undesirable to give ety- 

 mologies in the present state of knowledge concerning Poly- 

 nesian, this word toa is an exception. In making comparison 

 between words in Maori and those in the dialects of Eastern 

 Polynesia, it is an almost invariable rule that when two 

 vowels come together in a word a lost "k"* must be " read 

 in." Thus pio is the Maori piko ; ai is the Maori kaki, &c. 

 This being the case, it appears probable from analogy that we 

 should, in reading Maori itself, view with distrust the conjunc- 

 tion of two vowels, and inquire if a lost consonant should not 

 be supplied. If we do this to toa we find that toa should be 

 read toka. Now, toka in Maori means a stone, a rock ; (2) to 

 be subdued, stilled : totoka, to become solid ; to congeal as ice 

 or fat. This is followed by Tahitian toa, a stone ; a rock ; 

 coral-rock : Hawaiian koa, the horned coral : Marquesan toka, 

 the white coral ; Samoan to'a, to congeal, to coagulate ; a rock. 

 But toka in Maori is but a form of tonga, the south ; snow ; 

 biting cold, &c. Thus we may trace the different forms, tonga, 

 toka, toa, as — Bitter cold : to set, as ice ; a rock ; white coral- 

 rock ; hard ; the hard ironwood tree ; the hardy warrior ; the 

 valiant fighter ; the fighting-cock ; for, as I shall show further 

 on, the fighting-cock was as much the emblem of courage in 

 Polynesia as in Europe. The Polynesians generally, however, 

 have not received toa as the domestic fowl, with the exception 

 of Samoa (which has had much intercourse with Fiji), and we 

 find that it is over a Melanesian area that this word as " the 

 cock " is in use — viz., in Fiji and the New Hebrides. 



We now approach our important word moa, the Polynesian 

 for the domestic fowl. To consider this properly it is well to 

 divide the meanings of the word into two classes — viz., those 



* Or " rig," which is a form of " k." In Rarotongan " h," or " wh " 

 must be supplied ; in Marquesan, a lost " r." 



