HoNGi. — Maori Numeration. 639 



mapere (centre finger) ; toi-manawa (pulsation, heart finger) ; and toi-iti 

 (little finger), the toiti of Mr. Best. There is, you will observe, quite a 

 presentable likeness between this set of terms and that given by Mr, Best. 

 The one particular difference is that, whereas Mr. Best gives manawa as the 

 term for the middle finger and mafere for the next, I show that the reverse 

 is the case, the simple reason for this being that the toi-manawa is literally 

 the heart finger, from manawa, heart. It is an instance of the Maori 

 meaning exactly what he says ; he does not (neither logically could he) 

 call the middle finger the manawa, or heart finger. We have very clear 

 evidence here that those from whom Mr. Best draws his information are — 

 well, very careless in matters of nice knowledge. 



Mr. Best goes on : " Tekau. — This term, as already observed, is now 

 applied to ten, but the old men of the Tuhoe Tribe agree that in pre-Euro- 

 pean days it was apphed to twenty only, never to ten." Here we have 

 one of many similarly rash statements. It strongly implies that the Euro- 

 pean has left his mark on the system of Maori numeration. It is scarcely 

 necessary to deny that that is so. There is absolutely not a single trace of 

 European innovation in any of the many different modes of Maori numera- 

 tion- — not a single trace. As to pre-European days, a favourite finger- 

 game of the Maori, kariki-taka, undoubtedly belongs to pre-European days ; 

 it is, so to speak, as old as the hills. It is a game of ten points, and this is 

 how the points were enumerated : — 



(Note. — The te of tekau is omitted, as its use would mar the otherwise perfect rhythm.) 



Again as to pre-European days, it will not, I think, be denied that 

 the earlier Maori recitals, legends, &c., pubUshed in Grey's " Polynesian 

 Mythology" and White's " Ancient History of the Maori," bear internal evi- 

 dences of genuine antiquity. In one of these recitals — that relating to the 

 wanderings of the divinity Tawhaki and his mortal brother Karihi — you will 

 find the following recorded : " This old lady was at the moment employed 

 in counting some taro-roots which she was about to have cooked, and, as 

 she was blind, she was not aware of the strangers who stole quietly and 

 silently up to her. There were ten taro-roots lying in a heap before her. 

 She began to count them — One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 

 nine. Just at this moment Tawhaki quietly slipped away the tenth. The 

 old lady felt about everywhere for the tenth, but she could not find it. She 

 thought she must have made some mistake, and so began to count her taro- 

 roots over again very carefully — One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, 

 «ight. Just then Tawhaki had slipped away the ninth " ; and so on. 

 (G-rey's " Mythology " : English version, pp. 42-3 ; Maori version, p. 51.) 

 This counting incident is a very essential and characteristic feature of the 

 recital, and there we find the old lady using the ka prefix in counting, and 

 the tekau, or ten, is used no less than three times. Grey, in his translation, 

 uses the equivalent twice only ; I have taken the liberty to insert it a third 

 time in the extract, so that it corresponds exactly with the Maori version. 

 How old the Tawhaki - Karihi legend is it is now useless to inquire, but 

 its roots are deeply struck throughout the central Pacific. In the " Journal 

 of the Polynesian Society," vol. vii, p. 40, there occurs the best table of 



