656 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



7. Nor is it necessary to make any systematic critical exami- 

 nation of the structure of Maori -words, so as to distinguish 

 between radical and non-radical — perhaps formative — parts, and 

 ascertain their respective functions : 



8. Nor to inquire as to the relative and absolute permanence 

 and the etymological value (1) of the several Maori vowels, and 

 (2) of the consonants ; nor as to the rules which govern their 

 occasional interchange : 



9. Nor to compare inter se the existing Maori dialects, dif- 

 fering greatly as some do — the Moriori, for instance, and the 

 Karawa — from the commoner types ; nor the language of to-day 

 with such older fragments as exist : so as to ascertain whether, 

 in the language itself, there is any evidence that it has changed, 

 or is changing, and, if so, in what way. 



10. Nor to compare the Maori with the other island lan- 

 guages, in order to ascertain, as far as is possible, the archaic 

 forms of the whole group ; and whether all the differences 

 observable can be legitimately treated as divergences on the 

 part of the other languages from the true type preserved un- 

 altered in the Maori. 



It is evident that these rules, positive and negative, (nowhere, 

 as I have said, explicitly stated, but, as I think, necessarily to 

 be inferred,) reheve the etymologist of infinite labour and care, 

 and allow him to proceed with equal freedom and confidence : 

 if he is not altogether lege solutus, it may, I think, be said that 

 he is left free to treat each word upon its OAvn merits ; or, to put 

 it in a shghtly different form, the slow plodding of the method 

 of investigation — the following of footsteps often obscurely 

 visible, if visible at all — is superseded by direct vision. Mr. 

 Tregear may therefore fairly claim that his method should be 

 called " the method of insight," and that philology, in his hands, 

 has been raised to the dignity of an intuitional science. 



It would be impossible by a few extracts to do justice to the 

 long lists of words, more or less similar in appearance and 

 meaning, which Mr. Tregear has industriously collected : they 

 must be seen to be fully appreciated. Many of the pairs, 

 indeed, if standing alone, might not have been thought very 

 well matched. The Sanskrit Tivachtrei, the thunder god, for 

 instance, does not seem particularly like Maori whatitiri : nor 

 is Dhori, the bull, very like the Maori prefix iara, thought by 

 Mr. Tregear to mean bull ; while if Hindustani tut, darling, 

 is the same as the Maori te tau o te ate, it must surely be in 

 a state of advanced phonetic decay. On the other hand, many 

 are so mucli alike that Mr. Tregear, without, so far as appears, 

 any other evidence, is able to pronounce them idcuticaL " The 

 Maori word taura, a rope," he says, " is pure tauriis, a bull ; 

 roping, or tethering, the bull being the Aryan first use of a 

 rope." Again, " This word pare, a band for the hair, is derived 



