474 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



as kau, because the meanings of kaji, kahu, tan, tahu, ngaic, 

 ngahii, constantly cross and interchange in Polynesia, as chew- 

 ing, floating, clothing, &c. Kahui is a "herd" in Maori, as 

 taura is "herd" in Tahitian.* We have already seen that 

 kau meant a troop of persons, a fleet of canoes, kc. (Cf. 

 Lithuanian gauja, a herd = Sanscrit gavya, a herd of cattle.) 

 There is a Polynesian word mu {Anglicc, moo) which seems to 

 be a " herd " word, and there is nothing ridiculous in the idea 

 that a word springing from the idea of lowing cattle should 

 have many derivatives. In Maori mumu means a gentle 

 sound, a "murmur" (another instance of added r). The 

 English murmur comes through French from Latin murmur. 

 Icelandic, mwrra ; German, ??mrre7i, to murmur. The English 

 mumble, mummer, &c., are formed in the same way ; but we 

 are told by Skeat that the sound viimi is " used by nurses 

 to frighten children, like the English bo." We find from 

 another author that "bo is essentially a Tauric word."f And 

 the German mummel, a bugbear, compares with an infinite 

 number of others indicating "fear" and "cattle." The 

 Greek Poirj an ox-hide, fioam to roar, bawl, stands side by 

 side with the priiaiitive /xiJKao/xat {mukaomai), to low, bellow; 

 fjLVKTjTLKos, bellowing (perhaps javptos, countless) ; /xv^u, to murmur 

 (jjLVfjivj.l Portuguese, mugido, lowing: Latin, viugire, to bel- 

 low : Scottish, moo, the act of lowing ; moolat, to murmur. 

 The Gond mura = cow ; and in Silong (Archipelago) , while 

 k'bau is buffalo (Malay, karbau), the cow is called L'7nu. On 

 the Polynesian side, beside the Maori words 7numu, murmur, 

 and vmi, to swarm, we have — Tahitian, mumu, to make a 

 confused noise ; mutamuta, to mutter (another coincidence ?) ; 

 oviumu, to whisper : Hawaian, mumu, to huixi ; mumuhu, to 

 sound as many voices; mumulu, to come together in a crowd: 

 Tongan, mumu, to collect together; mumuMi, the sound of sea 

 or wind : Mangarevan, vmimu, an idiot, a fool ; as the Spanish 

 and Motu have bobo, fool : Samoan, mu, to murmur ; mumu, 

 to go in swarms : Fijian, mumu, to go in troops. I think it 

 can hardly be doubted that these words signify not only 

 "murmur," but the murmuring arising from crowds or herds 

 coming together, as Maori j^opo means to crowd, throng. 



If I should be asked to what conclusion I had come as to 

 the genesis of these words, I should reply that it appears 

 from the evidence that there was probably a root AK, which 

 sometimes became ka or aka. This ak acquired in one direc- 

 tion a (digamma) prefix v or b, and became vak ; in another 



* Kahui may be a compound of liui, to assemble ; but, on the other 

 hand, hui is probably an abraded form of kahui. 



t " Phallioism," Hargrave Jennings, p. 209. 



\ As to "murmur" and "multitude," see Canon Farrar's "Language 

 and Languages," p. 140. 



