636 Transactions. 



Tawhaki ascended the first heaven, then the second, and so on to the 

 tenth : — 



Piki ake Tawhaki i te rangi tuatahi = first heaven. 



He rongo te mahaki. 

 Piki ake Tawhaki i te raugi tuarua — second heaven. 



He rongo te mahaki. 

 Piki ake Tawhaki i te rangi tuatoru = third heaven. 



He rongo te mahaki. 

 Piki ake Tawhaki i te rangi tnawha = fourth heaven. 



He rongo te mahaki. 

 Piki ake Tawhaki i te rangi tuarima = fifth heaven. 



He rongo te mahaki. 

 Piki ake Tawhaki i te rangi tnaono = sixth heaven. 



He rongo te mahaki. 

 Piki ake Tawhaki i te rangi tiiawhitii = seventh heaven. 



He rongo te mahaki. 

 Piki ake Tawiiaki i te rangi tuawaru = eighth heaven. 



He rongo te mahaki. 

 Piki ake Tawhaki i te rangi tua-iwa = ninth heaven. 



He rongo te mahaki. 

 Piki ake Tawhaki i te rangi tua-ngahuru = tenth heaven. 



He rongo te mahaki. 



Upon his reaching this tenth {ngahuru) heaven, the ritual proceeds to 

 recite his doings there. It is to this Tawhaki that a tithe or tenth portion 

 of food is offered up, and the following reference to the practice occurs in 

 White's " Ancient History of the Maori " (vol. i, p. 40) : " E kore e kiia te 

 Jcai tuJcu ki a Tmvhaki ki te kupu nei ' Tekau,'' engari ' Ngahuru ' ; which is 

 to say, (A tenth portion of) food offered up to Tawhaki is not served in the 

 ordinarj^ term ' Tekau,' but (is served in the term) ' Ngahuru.' " That 

 instruction is definite and very much to the point, which is that the term 

 ngahuru has a peculiar mission : to use the ordinary term tekau in the place 

 of ngahuru is a subversion of that mission. 



In the light of that explanation of the history of the term ngahuru, and 

 in the light of the examples given, which may be multiplied by genuine 

 reference, I have no hesitation whatever to ask students to accept that, 

 to the Maori, ngahuru is not a name for ten. 



From those examples, which indicate the peculiarity of the meaning of 

 the term ngahuru, a peculiarity which restricts its use — in a method of 

 progressive numeration — to the number twelfth, I pass on to consider the 

 misuse of the term by Mr. Best. 



In his examples and tables Mr. Best freely uses the term ngahuru as 

 representing ten. For the correctness of this (mi8)use he cites no accept- 

 able Maori authority, but he does quote authority : " Ngahuru. — This is 

 the old Maori word for ten, now replaced by the term tekau. This word 

 [presmnably ngahuru'], recognisable under various letter-changes, is in use 

 over a wide area in the Pacific : Rarotongan, ngauru = ten ; Hawaiian, 

 anaulu = ten days ; Samoan, gafulu = ten. (See Tregear's Dictionary for 

 many other comparatives) " ; and so on. So that, failing Maori authority 

 on a subject which he has the assurance to entitle " Maori Numeration," 

 Mr. Best calmly refers the inquirer to those remote sources. Now, while 

 one does not object to Mr. Best going abroad to seek all the information 

 he can, one does object to his introduction of foreign practices (or alleged 

 practices) to show what the Maori really should do ; nay, more, what the 

 Maori does, or did. To those who know little or nothing about the matter 

 it is all very well to say, " See Tregear's Dictionary for many other com- 

 paratives." Mr. Best might have added, " See also Turner's ' Samoa ' for 

 comparatives." Turner gives a list of numerals purporting to be those 



