DATA AND NOTES. 257 



metathetic variant. Kotif occurs in Efate, in three of the New Ireland 

 languages at the eastern Indonesian gateway, and probably here are to be 

 classed the abraded Mota forms. Kosof is not positively but quite likely 

 identified in Mota goso. 



Tonga alone employs the three forms. 



197. 

 lago, to prop, the wooden pins whose sharpened ends are driven into the 

 sama (outrigger) of a canoe and whose upper ends crossed hold 

 and bear up the nakiat (struts). 

 Samoa : lango, props to rest a canoe on, to raise on supports. Tonga : 

 lango, a fulcrum, to raise by logs or pieces of wood, blocks of 

 wood on which anything is raised. Niue: lango, a support. 

 Maori : rango, the skid or roller over which logs, canoes, and the 

 like are dragged. Mangareva: rango, floor joists. Rapanui: 

 rango, bed, scaffold, ladder; rangorango, stool. Rarotonga: 

 tirango, threshold. Paumotu: tirangorango , joists. Tahiti: 

 rao, a block or roller under a boat, sleepers under a floor. 

 Viti: lango, a threshold, pieces of wood on which anything is set. 

 Mota: lango, to put rollers under; ilango, a roller; taplagolago, 

 cylindrical. Nggela : tapalagolago (from Mota) , a cart, a wheel. 

 Merlav: geilang, a roller for a canoe. Santo: lako, props of 

 a canoe. 

 Arabic: rakaha, to prop. 

 The Proto-Samoan stem is langom. 



The word runs its course across our area with only the minor ng-g 

 mutation in Efate and Nggela and partly in Mota, and the equivalent ng-k 

 mutation in Santo. 



198. 

 mat', ebb, low water. 



Samoa: masa, taimasa, low tide; masamasa, to be making ebb. 

 Futuna: masa, dry, waterless, empty. Nukuoro: masa, 



dry. Tonga: mahaifo,mahamaha, mamaha, ebb; maha, empty. 

 Niue : maha, empty. Uvea : maha, dry. Rapanui : taimaha, 

 low tide. Nuguria: umasa, low; tai kumaha, lagoon is dry. 



Viti: matt, to ebb; matha, empty, dry. 



Mota: mamasa, dry; mamasaiga, parched. Nggela: mamaha, dry 

 (of land). Aneityum: mese, dry; in-mas, ebb tide. 



Arabic : mat' a, to macerate and dissolve. Hebrew : masas, to melt, 

 to flow down, to waste. 



We have here two words : one, Efate mat 1 and Viti mati, ebb tide, with 

 no previous history; the other, masa, becomes ebb tide only in a resultant 

 fashion. Masa has the basic signification of dry; this is the only sense in 

 Uvea and Nukuoro, in Mota and Nggela ; it is associated with another sense 

 in Futuna, Viti and Aneityum. The first secondary sense, empty, is the 

 only signification in Niue, and in association with another sense it occurs 

 in Viti and Futuna. The third signification is dryness in a restricted sense, 

 the beach or reef from which the water has receded, that is to say, ebb or 

 low water. This is the only sense in which the word is used in Samoa ; in 

 Tonga it is associated with the empty, and in Aneityum with the dry sense. 



