640 Transactions. 



Maori genealogical descent from Karihi, the human brother of Tawhaki, that 

 I know of. That table shows fifty-two generations from Karihi to living 

 descendants. That represents some 1,456 years.* The point is that we 

 have here very first-class evidence of the ancient usage of tekau for ten, 

 a usage which Mr. Best has the assurance to deny. 



It may be stated as an indisputable fact that by the original usage of 

 tekau for ten the Maori has built up — and slowly — the comprehensive 

 system of numeration of which examples are particularly given in our Tables 

 A, B, C, D, and E. It may also be plainly stated that but for that usage 

 of tekau for ten we should not now have had those tables to contemplate. 

 Mr. Best and his authorities must alike fail in any attempts to set up a 

 standard other than ten as an equivalent for tehau. Even in Williams's 

 Dictionary the legend occurs, " Tekau (a.), ten" ; nothing more. The early 

 translators of the Prayer-book and of the New and Old Testaments regu- 

 larly use telcau for ten and tenth ; and they have not done this as a mere 

 innovation, but because the Maori so understood it. 



Conclusion. 



During the course of this essay I undertook to incidentally show that 

 Mr. Best's observations on (a) the numeral prefix are entirely inadequate, 

 and that those upon [h) the term ngahuru and (c) the term tekau require 

 considerable modification. 



I submit that I have now sufficiently done so, and, further, that I have 

 shown his authorities to be unreliable in the very matters upon which Mr. 

 Best apparently depended for his proofs. 



I now conclude by expressing my belief that the authorities and sources 

 to which I myself have referred the subject will be found to be absolutely 

 reliable. And there I now leave it. 



* By a printer's error the son of Karihi — namely, Rutapatapaiawha — has been 

 omitted from the table, which is thus a generation short. The generation-measuring 

 rod which I use I have made from mp,terials supplied by Burke's " Peerage." That 

 work shows that William the Conqueror was born A.D. 1025, and his descendant the 

 present Prince of Wales in the year 1865. Between these dates there is a space of 

 840 years, representing thirty generations from King to Prince. Thirty multiplied by 

 twenty-eight gives us 840, and thus an authentic measuring-rod of twenty-eight years 

 to each generation. There are fifty-two generations from our Karihi, the human brother 

 of Tawhaki, to his living descendants of the year 1865. Measured by our standard 

 rod of twenty-eight yeai-s to a generation, we get 1,456 years, or A.D. 453, as the period 

 of Tawhaki and Karihi. I make no apology for using this measuring-rod of my own 

 invention, because — (a) we want facts, and we are very close to them here ; and (6) we 

 are utterly without the means to make an adequate measuring-rod of purely Native 

 material. We cannot get back a sufficient distance in time to a date from which to strike 

 a fair average. No local standard can be fixed on gro\inds other than pure guesswork 



