402 Transactions. — Miscellaneous . 



" a hook ;" Dutch haak, Swedish hake, German hdken. Again, 

 I compared the Maori hau, "to chop," "to hew," with the 

 English " hew ;" but the German haven (hau-en) is nearer to the 

 Maori word. As to the derivations within the German itself, 

 the same cousinship appears. The German tan, " a rope," is 

 (as I said) the Maori tau, " a rope ;" but in Kluge's " Etymolo- 

 gisches Worterbuch der Deutschen Sprache" the German tau is 

 said to be connected with the English " tow," as a rope-making 

 material ; while the English tow, " to drag," has its Maori 

 equivalent in the verb to, "to drag," "to haul," as a canoe, 

 (to-anga, " towing ;" toanga-ivaka, " a place where canoes are 

 hauled up) ; the English arid the Maori to be similarly spelt, if 

 written down for the first time, to-day, by sound. I think that 

 the accusation about " words of any period" being used to suit 

 my convenience in comparison fails — it was to suit my conve- 

 nience as to brevity that I took the familiar form. 



Mr. Atkinson considers that I take too much latitude in 

 regard to the letter sounds, instancing that I bring the Sanscrit 

 ve, " to weave," into comparison with Maori syllables we, whe, 

 and rvhi. There is great indecision in some of the Maori forms 

 between »> and wh. I could quote numberless instances where 

 good Maori scholars (in past days) use waka for whaka (causa- 

 tive). I am often doubtful, in comparing Polynesian words, as 

 to which is the oldest form, h, wh, ./', v, w, etc. : in many cases 

 the Maori appears to be wrong. Thus, ahi, " fire," should (by 

 comparison with the Samoau afi) perhaps be written awhi ; 

 hoe, "a paddle," (in Samoan foe,) should perhaps be whoe — it 

 being possible to distinguish the true // sounds because rendered 

 by Samoan s: thus Maori hau, "wind" = sau : Maori hoa, " a 

 friend " = soa ; this question requires much consideration. That 

 the Maori whenu, "the warp of cloth;" whiri, "to plait," 

 Tongan fifi, "to plait cocoanut leaves;" Tahitian, /in', "to 

 plait;" Hawaiian, hili, "to plait, to twist, to spin," may all be 

 connected with a root vi or ve, "to spin, to weave," is very 

 probable phonetically : the sound here seldom gets so far away 

 from its radical as the European derivatives of the root ve or vi; 

 examples given being wine, withy, osier, iritis, ferrule, willow, 

 etc. (Skeat's " Etymological Dictionary"). As to the assertion 

 that I represent Sanscrit d, dh, I, and /• by the Maori r, that is 

 also a fact : my plea being that the English sounds are thus 

 represented in Maori. We translate the D of " David " by 1! of 

 I>'<t win ; the / of " linen " by r of rmena ; and both / and r in the 

 word "glory" as kororia. What interpreters do in translating 

 Aryan English into Maori letters is the only guide I have in 

 thus comparing the Aryan Sanscrit with Maori sounds written 

 in these letters. 



The most amusing part of this objection appears when we 

 consider its bearing on the Malay. Because a few words in 



