HoNGi. — Maori Numeration. 637 



used by natives speaking fifty-nine different dialects. In that list he, quite 

 wrongly, shows that the Maori uses the term ngahuru for ten. So it is with 

 the rest of such compilers, who continue to copy each other without im- 

 provement. Whereas we require particularities, they give us generalities. 

 Ngahuru is a term which has a known history. If the compilers of such 

 comparatives as Mr. Best refers to have anything to ofier in regard to 

 this, let them do so now. In the meantime, let us speak of "Maori 

 Numeration." 



I quote Mr. Best : " The late Mr. A. S. Atkinson mentions, in a pam- 

 phlet published by him in 1893, that both Archdeacon Maunsell and Bishop 

 Williams — two excellent Maori scholars^agreed in saying that among 

 some tribes ngahuru meant ten, and tekau eleven : Bishop Williams saying 

 that they counted by elevens, the eleventh being a tally ; and he com- 

 pares our ' baker's dozen.' " I quite agree as to the " two excellent Maori 

 scholars," for those two men did the bulk of translating into Maori the 

 contents of the Old and New Testaments, a monumental work. As to their 

 agreement on the question of ngahuru meaning ten, I find no evidence of 

 it in their great work. I deny most emphatically that the Maori seriously 

 used tekau to indicate eleven, the " baker's dozen" notwithstanding. Apart 

 from that, I find the following paragraphs in the Maori Dictionary which 

 bears Bishop Williams's name on the title-page : — - 



Ngahuru (a.), ten. 



Ngahuru (n.), the name of the eleventh and twelftli months, the eleventh being 

 ngnh uru-kai-paenga a,nd the twelfth simply JigfflAMrw ,• harvest-time. [Here 

 follows an untranslated ^laori reference, which renders, " Let us not go there 

 until the ngahuru {i.e., harvest-time) ; mitil the food-crops are first safely 

 stored away."] 



Those erroneous definitions of the term ngahuru constitute one of the few 

 blemishes in a work for which I have little else but praise. Though limited 

 in its extent, in the judicious selection of its references, in the masterful 

 and minute treatment of its examples, as in the faithfulness of its defini- 

 tions, it has been for very many years, and still is, a most reliable standard 

 work of Maori information. 



In the definitions under notice, however, Mr. WiUiams treats of ngahuru 

 as a numeral factor signifying ten, eleventh, twelfth. It is at once obvious 

 that we are given here a set of meanings attached to the single term ngahuru 

 which could tend to nothing but confusion. To say that ngahuru means 

 ten, that ngahuru also means eleventh (for the kai-paenga, or food-plenty, 

 cannot help him), and that ngahuru also means twelfth, is simply nonsense. 

 No form of Maori speech sets up such a contradictory position. As a 

 matter of fact, ngahuru has not the force of ten ; ngahuru has, as I hope I 

 have sufficiently shown, the force of tenth. Ngahuru-kai-paenga literally 

 signifies ngahuru-iood-])\entj, or the food-abundance of harvest-time. It 

 is plain that Mr. Williams does not quite understand the true meaning of 

 ngahuru. I say " not quite," because when he speaks of it as a name 

 for either the eleventh or twelfth month he is somewhat near the 

 truth, for it is a name for the tenth month. The paragraphs under 

 notice have already done sufficient mischief, and ought to be expunged 

 from a future edition ; for compilers such as Turner would feel quite 

 justified in using terms and meanings which occur in such a commendable 

 work as WiUiams's Dictionary. A paragraph like the following might be 

 substituted : — • 



Ngahuru (n.), autumn; harvest - time ; a name for the harvest — i.e., tenth 

 month. As an adjective, tenth. 



