Tregear. — On Ceremonial La?iguage. 593 



flakes fall thick even an aredvi deep on the highest tops of the 

 mountains. And all the three sorts of beasts shall perish : those 

 that live in the wilderness, and those that live on the tops of 

 the mountains, and those that live in the bosom of the dale 

 under the shelter of stables. Before that winter those fields 

 would have plenty of grass for cattle ; now, with floods that 

 stream, with snows that melt, it will seem a happy land in the 

 world — the land whereon footprints even of sheep may still 

 be seen. Therefore make thee a Vara,' "* &c, the god in- 

 structing Yima how the remnant of men, cattle, seed, and 

 other things might be preserved against the time of trouble 

 close at hand. Whatever that trouble was, whether of fire, 

 or water, or intense cold, or of the whole three in succession, 

 the memory of such an evil time could never have coexisted 

 in the legends of Europeans, Asiatics, American Indians, and 

 Polynesians if those people then occupied the localities they 

 now inhabit, since we know that no catastrophe has been 

 universal. In such case we have to rely upon the theories 

 either of common descent or of free interchange of traditions 

 all round the world in prehistoric times. 



Art. LXVII. — Ceremonial Language. 



By Edward Tregear. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 8th August, 1894.] 



Among the islanders known as the fair Polynesians only 

 those of one group have a distinctly-marked ceremonial lan- 

 guage — that is, a language possessing words and expressions 

 used in addressing superior or high-born persons. There are 

 faint traces in other island-groups of this usage, but not suffi- 

 ciently defined to be of much interest. In islands belonging 

 to races dwelling in or near the Pacific there still survive 

 ceremonial languages probably of great age — namely, in the 

 islands of Java and Bali in the Malay Archipelago, in Ponape 

 of the Caroline group, in Lifu of Melanesia, and probably in 

 several others. Far-off Madagascar, linguistically connected 

 with the Malays, also has a partially ceremonial language. 

 These dialects of respect and reverence present peculiar fea- 

 tures to the student, and, although the Samoan is the only 

 local variety with strong claims on our attention, we must 

 briefly consider the others, and notice their general principle 

 before touching on the details of the Polynesian in particular. 

 There is in all nations and races a tendency to set apart 



* Darmesteter's " Zend Avesta," vol. i., p. 15. 

 38 



