Tregear. — Polynesian Knoivledge of Cattle. 457 



a bite ; Slavonic yam, I eat ; Sanscrit cha7n and jam, to eat. 

 The accusative of Sanscrit go, a cow, is gam.'^' 



The h in Polynesian is not a permanent letter, being intro- 

 duced in Tongan where not in Maori, and absent in Earotongan 

 altogether. Kau and kahu are used apparently indifferently in 

 interchange, but kahu is reserved generally for the meaning of 

 "clothing," "to dress." In Sanscrit gau meant "hide" as well 

 as " cow;" and the Aryans were only clothed in leather or skins, f 

 It is probable we should find many allusions to this subject 

 if we could get the radical meanings of some of our obsolete 

 words ; I but in the matter of dress new and local names are 

 continually being invented and supersedmg those used a short 

 time before. Kau or kahu (Tahitian aahu, to bite (7igahu), 

 shows the connection) is used all over Polynesia for "garment," 

 " clothing," "covering," whatever may be the local names for 

 particular dresses. If to these meanings of kaic as food and 

 clothing we add the words for "carrying," we have a curious 

 series of coincidences. 



The Beast of Burden. — The means of conveyance among 

 pastoral people must of necessity (especially at first) have 

 been by means of animals, and probably by horned animals. § 

 Not only must the horse have been of far less utility 

 generally than the ox, but, historically, it is almost certain 

 that the horse was domesticated later. It is doubtful if the 

 horse was brought into Europe at all by the Aryan immi- 

 grants. Sir J. Lubbock, re evidence gathered in the ancient 

 tombs, writes, II "The horse was very rare, if not altogether 

 unknown, in England dm'ing the Stone Age. . . . The 

 teeth of oxen are so common in tumuli that they are even 

 said by Mr. Bateman to be ' uniformly found with the more 

 ancient interments.'" And againii : "the sheep, the horse, 



* The Paumotu vocabulary gives us kakai, to gnaw, nibble ; kai, kati, 

 and taruhae, food, to eat. When two vowels come together in a Poly- 

 nesian word there is probability of a lost consonant ; thus, it is possible 

 that kati is original form of kai. But kati means to chew (in Maori, to 

 nibble) : thus we get to the " gnaw " word ngau, which = kau. But 

 taruhae, to eat ? Taru means "grass," and hae "to tear"! Again, we 

 have gahu-gahu, " to chew, ruminate (!), think upon." 



t Professor Sayce, in his address to British Association [NatJire, 29th 

 September, 1887), says that the speakers of the parent Aryan language 

 had only the skins of wild beasts to protect them from the rigours of 

 winter, and nothing better than stone weapons with which to ward ofi 

 the attacks of animals. See also Herodotus, " Clio," 71. 



I Cf . Icelandic bufe, milch-kine ; buningr, dress, clothing. 



§ As to oxen as draught animals, we have carvings showing the use 

 of ox-carts, &c., in Assyria and Babylon; oxen drew the cars of the 

 Fraiikish kings ; and Grimm tells us that oxen were used for war-chariots 

 till late in the Middle Ages. 



II " Prehistoric Times," p. 115. 

 I! i.e., p. 182. 



