450 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



clothing, vehicles, cordage — nay, even their good and evil 

 spirits. In modern Australia, a land of flocks and herds, we 

 hear of men on up-country stations who can do nothing but 

 " talk bullock; " and so all men did to a great extent in days 

 when both word and idiom had origin in cattle-speech/'' 

 As the Sanscrit word for "cow -herd" passed into the 

 meaning of "king" and "chief," as the Latin word for 

 "hide" became "shield" and "tent," as "cattle-yard" 

 became (as court) the name of a palace, so by slight and 

 imperceptible gradations the old pastoral sense became buried 

 under more modern significations, and is lost till the labours 

 of etymologists trace the words back to their origin. In Poly- 

 nesia the loss of large cattle for countless centuries has caused 

 the early pastoral words to become obscure and overlaid by 

 newer meanings, but I believe that I can show the primal 

 meaning to be still distinctly traceable. 



The Aryan or Indo-European forms of the words for cattle 

 which I shall compare with Polynesian are taurus (tur, stior, 

 &c.), cow {ga2i, cu, chuo, &c.), ox and vacca (vaha, oxo-s, vach, 

 ochs, &c.), and hos {ho, boo, biu, &c.). The Polynesian words 

 are tcmra, tau, tara, kahu, kaxi, ngau, kai, and compounds. 



I must digress for a few words. I believe that there has 

 been either a broadening sound added to the Indo-European 

 vowels (particularly to the most important, the a), or else the 

 Polynesian has lost the power of pronouncing final r after 

 a vowel. This broadening sound is heard in modern Eng- 

 lish as a vulgarisation : Maria and Jemima become " Mariar " 

 and "Jemimar." The Maori language suffered much at the 

 lips of new-comers until a regular form of writing was made 

 classical by the missionaries. In the report of the New 

 Zealand Company's committee the rata (tree) became 

 " rattar," the taiva (tree) " tower." Herman Melville, in his 

 romantic little book on the Marquesas,! uses most laugh- 

 able forms of this error. Avia (cooked bread - fruit) is 

 amar, manu (bird) is marnoo, atua (god) is artua, &c. 

 In the unknown centuries which elapsed before the Aryan 

 languages were written down, it is probable that many a sounds 

 were thus broadened. Or the true r sound may have been 

 lost in the South Seas, as in many cases it was lost in Sanscrit, 

 by the softening into the Visarga li, or as Sanscrit words 

 softened in Prakrit [akka for arka, vagga for varga, &c.). 

 That I shall have to compare some words having the pure 

 Polynesian a (ah) with words having the Aryan ar is my ex- 

 cuse for thus digressing. 



I will take as my first instance the word bo (bos, &c.), 



* For ancient use of expression " talking bullock " see Bible (Apo- 

 cryplia), Ecclesiasticus, xxxix., 25. 



t " The Marijuesas Islands," Herman Melville. 



