570 TraTisactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Maori as kara-rehe, " quadruped," and in many others given 

 below ; and, though a good deal mutilated in English, still in 

 its essential part both in sound and spelling preserved for us in 

 "calf." 



A little while since, no one would have thought of looking 

 in the Maori language for a life-history of those ancient cattle, 

 but a competent method can discover and reveal it. Let us 

 first take this word kara as meaning " cow :" then, karaica, she 

 became a dam (lit. "cow-mother"); and, afraid of losing her 

 calf, karangata, remained silent when called ; but karaua, " the 

 old man" (cow-herd), with kararehe, his dog (lit. "cow-beast") 

 karapoti, "surrounded (and caught) her ;" and karatiti " fastened 

 her with pegs," i.e., tethered her ; whereupon, karangi, she 

 " became restless," and kamngaranr/a " bellowed frequently." 



Then, taking it as meaning oxen: karamidmui, they "were 

 in swarms," and fed upon karamu and /.-«?•« ».^/?6, the "cow-trees" 

 of the settlers ; but karapiti, they were " fastened side by side," 

 {i.e., " were yoked together," an important fact) and A-am»7im, 

 "the whirling thing" (lit. "cattle-whip,") bemg applied, they 

 showed /.-«>•« ((T/mwrt, " weals or stripe-marks ;" ^n^Wy, karapipiti, 

 they were laid " side by side," karahu, in " an oven ;" and kara- 

 knpe, "hot coals and stones being taken up with two sticks," 

 kakara, they became very " savory." 



Of the other cattle-words, I will only mention one, karaha, 

 " a wide-mouthed calabash," which, coming from the same root, 

 shows that their first drinking vessels were of leather. 



All this is of great interest, especially as showing that the 

 ancient Mauri used their cattle for draught purposes, and made 

 free use of their flesh for food ; and, therefore, that we have here 

 evidence of their language and customs long anterior to the 

 Aryan worship of the cow. And this fact confirms the opinion 

 of most philologists that any common origin of the Aryan and 

 Semitic languages must be of the most remote antiquity. 



The rhinoceros, kar-kand, we may assume, is named from 

 the same root ; like the horse, "it is only mentioned once in 

 Maori." Mr. Tregear rightly claims, as an epithet of the 

 bull, the word tarariia, "the two-horned;" he will, I am sure, 

 willingly concede that taratahi, " the one-horned," could apply 

 to nothing but the rhinoceros. 



I will only here refer to one other word, the Arabic tannin, 

 " a great serpent," the same in origin as the Maori taniuha, " a 

 great water monster." Mr. Tregear, I am glad to say, has 

 already recognized the Aryo- Semitic nature of the tajiiu-hn, by 

 connecting it on the one hand with the Sanskrit tan, " stretched 

 out," and on the other with the Hebrew Leviathan. By the in- 

 troduction of the great Arabian serpent, the happy family is now 

 complete. 



