Tkegeak. — The Aryo-Semitic Maori. 411 



ngariki, " the (lands of the) kings" (nga-riJd) ; the Hawaiian Mi, " a 

 chief, a king, a ruler," said by Lorrin Andrews to be the primary 

 form for alii (ariki) ; the Mangarevan akariki, " king, lord," where 

 aka stands for Maori whaka, the causative, and riki = rex, righ, 

 ric, etc., the European form of " king " or " lord."* 



I will now briefly notice the part of Mr. Atkinson's paper 

 wherein his humour expends itself most direfully : that which 

 treats of the " cock and bull," and the naga or " serpent." The 

 " cock and bull " is based upon a play on the word kakapo ; a 

 word which, it is true, I did not mention, but that is a small 

 matter. The kakapo is a species of parrot, and Mr. Atkinson 

 decides that the etymology of the word means "night parrot," 

 on account of its nocturnal habits. This seems highly pro- 

 bable, and I do not attempt to dispute the etymology, 

 which, probable or not, no one can now absolutely decide,! and 

 it is as good as many other guesses at Maori etymologies. 

 There would be nothing ludicrous in the connection of kaka with 

 "cock;" words similar to this, and evidently onomatopoetic, 

 mere names derived from sound, have been used for many birds 

 all over the world. The Maoris now call the cock tikaokao 

 (ti-kao-kao), evidently a sound-word, from its cry — kaka, the 

 parrot, being also probably named in the same manner. This 

 is fully recognised in the Fijian proverb, which says wisely and 

 wittily, " A boaster is like a kaka (parrot), always shouting out 

 his own name." The Greek word kokkv, " the cry of the 

 cuckoo ;" our own word "cuckoo" itself; our word "cock" (from 

 Low Latin, coccum) ; the Sanscrit kaka, " a crow;" kaka-jmshta, 

 " the Indian cuckoo ;" kaka-bhiru, " an owl," etc., all distinctly 

 point to this word being a sound-name. In my paper on " The 

 Maori in Asia," the word I compared with the Maori kaka was 

 kakatua, "the cockatoo, the crested parrot." Of this word "cock- 

 atoo," Skeat says that it is Malay (it is written in Hindustani 

 in the "Hindustani Dictionary" — perhaps adopted), and adds 

 that, " it is, doubtless, imitative, like our ' cock. 1 This Malay 

 word is given at p. 84 of Pijnappel's ' Malay-Dutch Dictionary ;' 

 he also gives the imitative words kakak, ' the cackling of hens,' 

 p. 75 ; and kukuk, ' the crowing of a cock,' p. 94 ; so also kakatua, 

 ' a bird of the parrot kind,' (Marsden's ' Malay Dictionary,' p. 261) ; 

 cf. Sanscrit, kukuta, ' a cock,' so named from its cry." So far, 

 Skeat, who is doubtless right in comparing the name for parrot 

 with the name for cock; but if I do the same, I, being a new 

 writer, am regarded as food for the funny men of criticism. 



In regard to the second part of the word (po, of kakapo), and 

 that it may have had connection with " bull," I only say that 



* And in Marquesan, where hakaiki =_ "king, chief," haka is whaka, 

 and iki (dropped ?•) = riki. 



t Kapo, " to snatch, seize," though unlikely, may have to be considered. 



