Atkinson. — The Aryo-Semitic Maori. 659 



led out. Mr. Tregear takes as his starting-point the Greek 

 tigris, and he gives as the Maori pronunciation of this, tahika ; 

 in this, out of consideration for his reader, he is giving the result, 

 without the difiicult intermediate steps which led up to it. It 

 is, I helieve, agreed that the Greek iota was sounded like the 

 continental (or Maori) i. If, therefore, a Maori were set to pro- 

 nounce tiiiris, he would (or should), I think, say tikiri, or iikirihi, 

 according to the prominence given to the final s. This, how- 

 ever, would embarrass the etymologist, putting him altogether 

 on the wrong track. But there is another, and much more 

 widely known Aryan word for the same animal, our own word 

 " tiger." Now, if a Maori were set to pronounce the latter he 

 would certainly say taika, or tahika ; which, therefore, (since 

 tvjris = tiger in sense, and tiger = tahika in sense and sound,) 

 Mr. Tregear legitimately takes as the basis of comparison. He 

 then shows how: Taheke, "he was quick;" tahekeheke, "he was 

 striped;" taheke, "he came down like a torrent;" tahere, "he 

 was ensnared ;" and, most desirable if unexpected consummation, 

 tahere, " he hung himself." It would be historically as well as 

 zoologically interesting to know whether this last statement is to 

 be taken in a special or, as seems to be intended, in a general 

 sense ; whether, that is, the practice of suicide was as universal 

 a characteristic of the Aryan tiger as the being striped, or the 

 coming down like a torrent. 



The last I will speak of is one which equally, if not in a 

 greater degree, shows the power of Mr. Tregear' s method. It 

 IS the horse : and he discovers and identifies it by means of a 

 single Maori word, a verb of general meaning ; or, as he puts it : 

 " The horse is mentioned but once, and that not as Greek hippos 

 but Latin equus (early pronunciation elms). The Maori word is 

 eke, to mount a horse ; although they had lost the animal, they 

 kept the meaning of this." Of course, during the interval when 

 they had no horses — by the theory for about 4,000 years — they 

 had to use this verb in a quite general sense for getting upon 

 anything, as on to a mountain, or into a canoe ; indeed, the 

 canoe itself was said to eke when it touched the beach — but this 

 only makes the discovery of its secret the more remarkable. 

 And the discovery is not only of interest hnguistically, but as 

 showing — can we say, to demonstration? — that the primitive 

 Aryan was a horseman. The Greeks of the time of Homer, I 

 believe, had lost the habit, if not the art, of riding. 



Now, in the conclusion of " The Aryan Maori," Mr. Tregear 

 puts his reader into this dilemma : " The man," he says, " who 

 has read this book, if not ossified by prejudice, is a man con- 

 vinced, and a future fellow-labourer." With only these alterna- 

 tives before me, I much prefer to be convinced ; and so I tender 

 my services, such as they are. 



In the first place, then, I will venture to supply two or three 



