Tregear. — Ancient Alphabets in Polynesia. 365 



(our " broad arrow"). This may be mere coincidence : on the 

 other hand it may be a real link connecting tan, T, the cross- 

 letter, with the Polynesian ta-tau, " to write, paint, puncture, dot, 

 count, describe, and worship," especially as the Scandinavian 

 tyr or tir was worshipped as a divinity. :i: To those who would 

 remind me that printing is modern, I would say that the first 

 writing of Asia was the printed (stamped) arrow-head of the 

 cuneiform script, on clay cylinders. 



In Maori, the word used for " cross " is ripeka; its meanings, 

 "lying across one another," " to lay across," " to mark with a 

 cross," " to crucify." The root is (apparently) peka, " a branch," 

 " to branch," (a branch, whether of a tree or of a river,) " to 

 turn aside ;" pekanya, " a branch road." As the Egyptian pekli, 

 "to divide," pekkha, "division," and peka, " a gap," seem to 

 coincide with this, we may also consider if the Teutonic beck, 

 "a stream," has not the same derivation as Maori peka, "a 

 branch stream." Close to English and England is the Breton 

 peck, " a division." Skeat (our greatest authority on English 

 etymology) says of this word heck: " Koot unknown." Again 

 the Hawaiian comes forward with a well-preserved ancient 

 meaning : Pea (the Hawaiians lose k =peka,) means " to make 

 a cross," " to set up timbers in the form of a cross," " a cross, 

 or timbers put crosswise," thus : x , formerly placed before the 

 temples as a sign of kapu (taboo). Mr. Andrews (" Haw. 

 Diet.") then gives this most valuable example of the use of the 

 word : " e kau pea, ' to place in the form of a cross.' " In this 

 sentence (e tan peka), tau, used as a verb, is placed with peka ; 

 and I think the X (the Asiatic tan), placed in front of the temples 

 as a sign of taboo, quite conclusive as to the sign being considered 

 a sacred one. 



A gentleman whose name carries weight as an expert in the 

 Melanesian languages, the Eev. Lorimer Fison, informed me 

 that he considered kau was the radical part of the Maori word 

 rakau, "a tree," "timber" — wood generally — its compounds 

 in Fijian, etc., leading him to this conclusion. A close study 

 of the Polynesian dialects convinces me of its possibility, 

 the interchange of k and t being much more common than 

 is generally supposed ; not only between Hawaiian and the 

 other dialects, this being regular and seldom departed 

 from ; nor as in Samoan, where it is a modern innovation, but 

 even within the New Zealand Maori language itself : makuru 

 and maturutitru, whakiwhaki and whatiwhati, etc. Thus, it is 

 possible that tau "to float, to rest," may be connected with kau 

 " to swim." If that be the case, and that kau may mean wood, it 



* I do not know if tir, the " arrow-head" letter of Scandinavia, is con- 

 nected with the Persian tir, " an arrow ;" but, if so, it is probably represented 

 among the Maoris (who do not know the bow and arrow) by tiri, " to throw 

 one after the other," " to throw one by one." 



