4 Transactions. ^. 



^golo (fade or wither). There are other more doubtful examples of it, such 

 as oloolo (a sacrifice), where probably (as in Efate gorokoro) the idea was that 

 of protection, coming into the enclosure of the god sought and being shut 

 out from the power of other gods. 



Some examples of the application of these rules may now be given. 

 'Three roots will perhaps be sufficient to illustrate the subject. 



Taking the Maori word roto, it is evident that we have the root itself. 

 We may expect, however, to find it modified in various ways, and may look 

 ior it in such forms as loto, oto, lo, ro, roro, lolo, tow. The meaning of roto 

 is " inside, within, the midst, places inland, a lake " {ha-rotoroto, a pond). 

 From this meaning of " within " (which is the root meaning) the word comes 

 to mean in Samoa (in the form loto) " the heart, desire, or will ; the under- 

 standing ; the interior of a house ; a deep pool in the lagoon " — loloto (deep, 

 depth), lotoi (to be in the middle). The Tahitian roto and Hawaiian Joko 

 have much the same meanings. In Tonga loto means " the mind " ; JoJoto 

 " deep, the deep, ocean." In Mangareva we get a further meaning, for 

 here roto is " deep, depth, the inward parts," and " to obscure or darken " ; 

 while rotoroto is " the shallow sea," a curious meaning, to be explained 

 presently. We may follow this full form of the root to Melanesia, where 

 in Saa Malaita roroto is " a dark cloud " ; in San Cristoval rodo is " dark," 

 rodomana " the abode of the dead, the dark land " ; and in Florida rorodo 

 is " blind." 



The form oto does not appear in Maori, but from the meanings presently 

 to be given of the Maori roro it appears more than probable that oto has 

 been modified into uto, which means in Tonga " the brains (the inner parts), 

 the spongy substance of an old cocoanut " ; the Mangareva uto (marrow, 

 yolk of eggs) ; Mangaia uto (little kernel growing in a cocoanut) ; Fiji uto 

 (heart, pith of trees, marrow of bones) ; Mota utoi (pith of trees) ; Malay 

 utak ; New Celebes utok. Uta (inland country), " forest " in many lan- 

 guages, is doubtless the same word. A final o is often represented in Malay 

 by a, and in Malay otak means " brains " (A; is a noun suffix in Malay). 



We now come to ro, which appears in Maori, meaning " in, into " ; and 

 lo, which in Santa Cruz means " night or darkness." Taking next the 

 reduplicated form of this, we find the Maori roro, meaning " brains or 

 marrow." The Samoan lolo and Tahitian roro have similar meanings. 

 The Hawaiian lolo means " the brain, marrow of bones, insane." Tongan 

 lolo (oil, oily fat) and Mangareva roro (soft) are perhaps meanings derived 

 from " the brain." In Santa Cruz lolo is " fat or oil " ; in Mota loloi means 

 " inside, the inner part, the affections," and is used in very many compound 

 words to express states of feeling ; roro means " deep, to sink down, be 

 deep," also " to be sunk down," and so " shallow " ; the water is said to roro 

 in the well, hence the well is roro (shallow), an explanation of the Manga- 

 revan word. R frequently becomes n, and there can be little doubt that 

 nonom (to think) and nonon (to smear) — the m and n being verbal suffixes 

 — are .both from roto. In Efate, New Hebrides, roro means " to think." 

 rorona " thought " ; and Dr. McDonald mentions that these words are 

 sometimes pronounced trotro and trotrona. 



Taking now the final modification, the transposition of the letters, the 

 Mota toro means " deep " ; toron, " to desire or long for " ; Florida dolo, 

 " to love " ; San Cristoval doodoo, " black " ; doa, " blind." 



In Oba, New Hebrides, lologi is " inside," and rorogi " deep " ; in Male- 

 kula, roror is " deep," and ror " the afternoon " {gi and r are the noun 

 suffixes in these two languages). The meaning " afternoon " is from the 



