634 



Transactions. 



a prefix which answers the question as to the order in which a person or 

 thing stands : — 



Having thus far, with more or less detail, set out the various numeral 

 prefixes used by the Maori in these original modes of niuneration, and 

 having also demonstrated an apparently systematic adoption of the five 

 vowels in the original arrangement of those prefixes, as in Tables A, B, 

 C, D, and E, I now pass on to other considerations. The functions of the 

 various numeral prefixes have been clearly shown, without burdening the 

 tables with minor and, after all, inconsequential detail. In the methods 

 before him, the student is provided with the material on the lines of which 

 he may extend the process, by detail, to its limits. 



I have not followed Mr. Best along his many prospecting by-paths ; 

 to do so would be alike tedious and unprofitable. To give one instance 

 (page 159) : " It appears to me that at some period of their history the 

 Maori must have used a vigesimal numerical method — a system of counting 

 by scores, or twenties. I shall include in this paper a table showing the 

 method so far as I have been able to ascertain it from my local Native 

 friends. It will be observed that there was a special term [tekau) for twenty, 

 but none for thirty ; a special term {hoJcorua) for forty, but none for fifty ; 

 a special term (hokotoru) for sixty, but none for seventy ; and so on." All 

 of which is to say that " ten " meant twenty, that " twenty " meant 

 forty, and that " thirty " meant sixty, without the aid of the necessary 

 word " to double " (topu), making ten twice ten, and so on. Such a pro- 

 position makes for the confounding of the whole of a well-ordered system, 

 and reason refuses to discuss it. If there is a distinct method of counting 

 by scores, or tatau-a-rua tekau, other than — 



Hoko-tahi pu 

 Hoko-rua pu 

 Hoko-toru pu 



Ten doubled = 20 



Twenty doubled 40 

 Thirty doubled 60 



by all means let us know of it ; but pray do not attach a double force to 

 terms the values of which are known and fixed. Why not — 



Hoko-rua . . . . . . . . Twenty 



Hoko-wha . . . . . . . . Forty 



Hoko-ono . . . . . . . . Sixty 



in which the meanings of the terms are not strained ? But let us pass on. 



{b.) The Term " Ngahuru." 



It is not too much to claim that the Maori said what he meant, and 

 meant what he said. To put this in another way, it is a rule that a Maori 

 word, or a term, has a certain well-defined primary meaning. The accepted 

 primary meaning of the term ngahuru is " the fulness, the abundance," as 

 is more fully set out in the extended form — nga-huru kai -paenga = the ful- 

 ness, the abundance of food ; therefore, " harvest-time, the harvest month." 



