358 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



not seem to have been of wide distribution, and perhaps the 

 uncertainty of its sound, vibrating from F and V into P and B 

 made it difficult for the first scribes of language to fix its 

 fluctuations. Under the name of "digamma" it was used in one 

 Greek dialect, and has proved useful in philology in showing 

 how transitions of words have taken place, as, to use the old 

 school-boy example, FoTvog (i.e., oIvoq) into Latin rinum, wine. It 

 was a fancied resemblance to one gamma superimposed on 

 another, f, which led the grammarians to relinquish the old 

 name of Fav for this letter. As the name of a nail, it does 

 not seem to have been adopted by the Aryan nations (so far as I 

 can ascertain). Taylor gives the meaning of van as "a peg or 

 nail," but says, "rather, hook, as a hook fastened into the wall 

 for holding clothes." Farrar* gives vau, "a tent-peg or hook." 

 The tent-peg would seem the more probable origin among a 

 pastoral and probably a tent-dwelling people, as once the 

 children of Abraham were. 



The Polynesians seem to possess a word of nearly the same 

 sound and signification. Maori whao, "a nail, any iron tool, a 

 chisel;" whaowhao, " to carve wood ;" koichao, " a hole ;" uruko- 

 whao, "leakage in a canoe through the holes made for the lash- 

 ings of the rauawa" (attached sides). Samoan fao, "a wooden 

 peg or nail ; any kind of gouge used in making the sinnet-holes 

 in canoes; to punch holes in the side of a canoe;" fao fao, "a 

 long shell, formerly used as a gouge in making the sinnet-holes 

 for lashing together two planks of a canoe." Tahitian fao, " a 

 nail or chisel ;" "to make holes with a fao ;"faoa , "a stone 

 adze ;" haoa, " a hard stone, of which adzes were formerly 

 made ;" " an adze" made of this stone. Hawaiian han, the name 

 of any hard substance, as iron, the horn of a beast, etc. : 

 strained tightly, hard ; haoapuhi, (puhi, " an eel,") the name of a 

 stick used instead of a hook for catching eels ; ohao, (for kohao,) 

 " to tie," as a rope or string. 



The last word brings us to the consideration of the New 

 Zealand Maori words : whao, " a nail," and whau, " to tie ;" i.e., 

 fastening with a peg, and fastening with a cord. Whau, with 

 Samoan fav, " to tie together," and Tahitian fafau (redup.), " to 

 tie together," have sister words throughout Polynesia. I believe 

 that the notion held by one or two Maori linguists, that the word 

 fau, used as a verb, " to tie," arose from the noun naming the 

 tree fan, (whau, or whauwhi,) is incorrect, as the word fau is 

 applied to different species of trees the bark of which is useful 

 for cordage, or clothing. The Hibiscus tiliaceus, the Brovssonetia 

 papyrifcra, a species of I'rtica, etc., have this word fau applied 

 to them in different islands, a fact which points out that fau 

 was used as a word meaning "to tie," or "fasten together," 

 before the dispersion of the Maori race in the Pacific. 



* "Language and Languages," p. 117. 



