186 THE POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 



10. 



buta, blind (in meta-buta, lit. eye-dark). 



Viti: mbutb, dark, darkness; mat ambuto, to become dizzy and fall, 



lit. eye-dark. 

 Malay: buta, blind. 



EFATE-VITI-SKMITIC. 

 ii. 



ba, ba si, fa, va, to come, to enter, to tread (to go upon), to tread upon. 

 Viti: va-tha, to tread upon. 

 Hebrew: bo, ba. Ethiopic: bawi, to come, to enter. 



This naturally suggests an association with bano (147) to go. The Efat6 

 ba-si implies a final ^--radical, which implication is further hinted by Viti 

 vaiha, for s-th is a not infrequent mutation. In bano, however, the radical n 

 is constant throughout Melanesia with the exception of a New Hebridean 

 (Mota-Ambrym-Sesake-Eromanga-Pak) and a Solomon (Nggela-Belaga) 

 group, which have va. In view of the constancy of n in bano and the appear- 

 ance of s in this item it is uncertain whether to regard this ba as a distinct 

 root and to transfer from 147 the two va groups to association therewith, 

 or to regard the latter as mere coincidences in the result of abrasion. With 

 this bd, Dr. Macdonald associates as a dialectic form mai to come, which 

 is, of course, nothing but the universal Polynesian directive. 



12. 



bila i, to pick up, to gather up anything, as fallen leaves, fruit, fish lying 

 on the ground. 

 Viti : vili, to pick up fallen fruit or leaves. 

 Ethiopic: 'araya, to gather, as fruit, herbs; to glean. 



*3- 

 bitelo, butol, bitol, to be hungry. 



Viti: vitolo, hunger, to be hungry (an unusual dialectic word). 

 Nggela : vitolo, to hunger. Motu : hitolo, hunger. 

 Arabic : talaha, tolilia, to have an empty belly. 



The first classification of these data was based upon the comparative 

 material afforded by the Efate dictionary. Later research through other 

 sources of information have in several items brought to light new data 

 which interrupt the applicability of the class heading, as in this case. The 

 serial number of the items, however, had by that time been so extensively 

 employed in man)* calculations that it has seemed hardly worth the while 

 to recast the arrangement and to provide a new notation. 



Peculiar interest attaches to the entry which conveniently, yet inaccu- 

 rately, is credited to the Motu. It is drawn from a vocabulary of 160 

 items collected by F. R. Barton and included in Seligmann's "Melanesians 

 of British New Guinea." Captain Barton designates this vocabulary by 

 the name "Lakatoi Language" and notes that it is "the trading language 

 spoken by the Elema natives and their visitors." In this remarkable 

 lingua franca I have been able to identify no more than this item as having 

 any association with the languages of our province. The lakatoi are the 



