422 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



hen's egg, the round bone that enters the socket 

 of the hip; koomoa, the long feathers in a cock's 

 tail. 



Tonga — 



Moa, the domestic fowl ; moatane, a cock. 

 Mangaia and Rarotonga — 



Moa, the domestic fowl ; atamoa, a ladder. 

 Marquesas — 



Moa, the domestic fowl ; aka-moa, to preserve, to take 

 care of; tomoa, encouragement to fight given by 

 two spectators. 

 Mangareva (Gambier Islands) — 



Moa, the domestic fowl, (2) to make a hole in the 

 ground, to dig up ; moaga, a red beard. 

 Paumotu — 



Moa, the domestic fowl ; maimoa, a plaything, a pet. 

 Melanesian : Eutuna — 



Moa, the domestic fowl. 

 Easter Island — 



Moa, the domestic fowl. 

 Now, in these w r ords we have not only a plain proof that 

 moa was the common w 7 ord in Polynesia for the domestic fowl, 

 but in its very wide geographical distribution (from the New 

 Hebrides to Easter Island) we may feel sure that the word is 

 not newly introduced, but is an ancient name probably known 

 to all Polynesians before their dispersion. Moreover, it is a 

 fact in regard to language that w 7 ords taken in bodily from a 

 foreign tongue seldom " make growth " like the native words. 

 Of course, I do not allude to wholesale interpolations like the 

 Norman- French forced on the Saxons at the time of the Con- 

 quest, but to odd words brought in " to fill a long-felt want." 

 Thus, the English tongue may adopt words like " chaperon," 

 or "tattoo," but they remain as single w 7 ords, and do not 

 readily form compounds ; while a genuine English word like 

 "hair" forms "hairy," "hairless," "hair-breadth," "hair- 

 spring," &c. As I have shown above, the word " moa" has 

 made an enormous quantity of compounds in some dialects, 

 and these compounds show unmistakably the character of 

 the animal. Can we dream that when the Tahitians or 

 Hawaiians are using words which mean " a fighting-cock " or 

 " a long-spurred cock," as figures of speech for a valiant war- 

 rior, they are alluding to the Dinornis, which certainly did 

 not fight with its spurs ? 



It may be objected that, although the Maoris are Poly- 

 nesians, and may be expected to know the word moa as 

 all other Polynesians did, the compounds showing it to 

 relate to the domestic fowl only w T ere constructed after their 

 separation from other tribes. Let us, then, examine some of 



