HoNGi. — Maori Numeration. 



627 



complex, can be faithfully — need I urge, graphically — described. Could 

 such a state of things exist if his language was crude, inadequate, unscien- 

 tific ? I think not. In its perspicuity, in its comprehensiveness, I have 

 found the Maori language to be, in its particular domain, absolutely re- 

 liable, and free from confusion of sense. Those good qualities, I shall now 

 proceed to show, he has worked into his system of numeration — premising 

 that if I fail to make this clear it is my fault, and not the fault of the 

 system. 



The Maori system of numeration was perfected by means of the an- 

 cillar}^ prefix. He found five vowels in his language — a, e, i, o, and u — and 

 those letters he appears to have deliberately employed as aids in the con- 

 veying of different senses of numeration which different situations created. 

 By taking these letters seriatim we can learn both of the manner in which 

 he used them and the ends which he had before him. The first vowel, 

 then, is a ; this he uses as ka. As a numeral prefix ka answers the question, 

 " How many does that make ? " 



[Note. — Ma is used as a numeral conjunction signifying " and " ; it 

 serves as a threadle with which to catch up the successive imits to loop 

 them on to their respective tens. The definite article te (the), its plural 

 nga (the), and the indefinite article he (plurally e) are used as occasion 

 requires.] 



Table A. 



* And so on, adding successive units, to 38. 

 first unit and the last unit are giren. 



To save space, in each case only the 



