208 THE POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 



ota, chaff, refuse. Paumotu: ota, residue. Rapanui: 

 hakaotaota, to crumble. Hawaii: oka, refuse; okaoka, dust. 

 Arabic: "ota', rubbish, refuse. 



Again we encounter what seems to be a frontal abrasion, and it involves 

 the same consonant as in 102. More evidence on the Melanesian side is 

 needed before the identification will be quite satisfactory. But if the m is 

 indeed radical it removes the resemblance on which the Semitic identifica- 

 tion is based. 



108. 



nai, side board of a canoe, defender of a place, fence. 



Samoa: a, ai, a fence, railing. Tonga: a, fence, hedge; ai, to 

 surround, inclose, defend. Futuna: a, wall, hedge, fence, 



anything which makes an inclosure. Uvea: a, wall, fence. 



Tahiti: nanai, to put in a hedge. 



Arabic : nawa', naa', to guard, to protect. 



This involves a frontal abrasion, namely of n; but the recurrence of the 

 n in Tahiti nanai is very good evidence in favor of the identification. 



109. 



nobwa, ob, naob, lime (ashes of coral); nobwanobwa, to be dusty, to 



become dust, to fly in the air (dust). 

 Samoa: navu, lime. 

 Pokau: avu, lime. Mekeo: apu, id. Motu : ahu, id. Hulaiabu, id. 



Galoma: gabu, id. Sinaugoro: gau, id. Rubi: gou, id. 



Sariba: gauarana, id. Nada : pwau, id. Kiriwina: pwak, id. 



Wedau: gabubua, id. Panaieti, Misima: aru, id. 

 Arabic: cf. no. 



The Samoan may be homogenetic with nobwa, but it is impossible to 

 associate it with ob and naob, unless the decrepit forms from Torres 

 Straits are susceptible of interpretation as transition stages. That nobwa 

 is not itself a modification of ob with the article is clear from the fact 

 that nobwa takes the article and then becomes nanobwa. 



no. 



noba-ni, in ma ni, tumu na, tomo na, manubunubu, to wrap in leaves with 



hot stones and cook ; nobwanobwa, to be cooked, soft. 

 Hawaii: nopu, thoroughly cooked, soft, plump, fat, swelled out; 



nopunopu, to spring or swell up (in the mind), to swell, to be 



large, round, to spring up. 

 Arabic : tabaha, tabh', to cook, roast, ripen, to grow up, to be cooked ; 



tubbah', tabih', fatness; tabW , cooked. 



In the fact that there may be a satisfactory sense identification of the 

 Hawaiian with nobwanobwa I see no warrant to extend the identification 

 to the inclusion of nobani and manubunubu where the difference in significa- 

 tion seems prohibitive. Granted that this complete identification be valid 

 it can serve in no way to admit tumani and the other forms in t; yet it is 

 upon the t in these forms that our author hangs his Semitic identifications. 

 They bear no relation to the Polynesian. 



