Atkinson. — The Aryo'Semitic Maon. 657 



firom pareho, the head ; and this pareho is only our English word 

 ' brow,' the forehead. We see this word in two forms in Maori ; 

 the Scottish word brae means the brow of a hill, shortened \_i.e., 

 I presume the Scottish word is shortened,] in Maori into rae, 

 the forehead, or a headland ; again, it [the Scottish word] is 

 lengthened out into pareho, the head." Here you will see that 

 Mr. Tregear's method enables him at a glance to connect two 

 Maori words by one Scotch one — a result which might have 

 taken the slow historic method an indefinite, perhaps an infi- 

 nite, time to accomplish. Again, Mr. Tregear says the Maori 

 Ay/;y/^j/^;', grapple, i.s' [English] grapple; Maori tangai,i\\e. bark, 

 is English tan (for dyeing), and tannin ; Maori Ime, to hate, is 

 (French) hair, and (English) hate ; Maori Mri, the hide, is (Eng- 

 lish) curry, to dress hides ; and so on, through a long list. 



But Mr. Tregear is, in my opinion, undoubtedly at his best 

 in discovering and describing the Aryan animals known to the 

 Maoris 4,000 years ago, and now only preserved as fossils in 

 their language. 



" Knowing," he says, " that the Maoris were strangers to the 

 sight of certain animals until these were introduced by the 

 Europeans, I resolved to try and find if there was any proof in 

 the verbal composition by which I could trace if they had ouce 

 been familiar with them." He looks in the Maori language for 

 what he calls "graft-words," words like our "lion-hearted," in 

 which the name of an animal is a component part. He says : 

 " I took the frog as my first subject. There was no Maori word 

 for it, nor an Aryan word until I tried Sanskrit. 



" Sanskrit, bhehi, the frog. He "svas [in Maori] : — 



" Peke, leaping over. 

 Pepelce, drawing up his arms and legs. 

 Tupeke, jumping up. 

 Hupeke, bending his arms and legs. 

 Peki, chirping or twittering. 

 Peke, all gone, without exception." 



He adds: " This was the frog — there could be no doubt of it." 

 In these six words, then, lies the whole evidence that the Maoris 

 once knew the fi-og : you will observe that, cogent as the proof 

 is, it is still more compendious. Yet, if I might suggest, and 

 not seem to be gilding refined gold, there is one word more 

 wanted to complete the picture — that is, hikupeke. Now, hiku, 

 you may remember, is the tail of a fish or reptile ; peke, we 

 have just seen, is the frog: hikupeke, therefore, must be literally 

 " frog's tail." But what is the modern meaning of the word ? 

 You will see in Williams's Dictionary that it is " to be shortened, 

 so as not to hang down low." Could you have a more exact or 

 picturesque description of a frog's tail ? 



