DATA AND NOTES. 261 



Viti: sele, a bamboo knife; seleva, to cut with a knife, to castrate. 



Nggela, Belaga: sari, to cut. Malo: sarosaro, to saw; isaro, a saw. 

 Mota : sal, to cut with a drawing motion ; gasal, a knife ; sir, to 

 shave. Gog: gasal, a knife. Maewo: siri, to shave; siriva, 

 to shave off something. Pak, Leon : sir, to shear. Sesake : 

 soro, a saw; soroa, to saw. Pala: sele, a bush knife. 



Hebrew: nas'ar, to saw. Aramaic: nsar, id. 



Throughout the data assembled in this item there is manifest a tendency 

 to particularize the manner of cutting. Thus Efate, Fotuna, Malo, Sesake, 

 all specify the saw ; Samoa, Pak, Leon have the shearing and clipping sense ; 

 Mota and Maewo shave ; many of these languages indicate the knife ; Nuku- 

 oro suggests the burin. From this presentation we might infer an equip- 

 ment of saws, scissors, razors, lancets and all manner of edged tools. Far 

 otherwise is the fact. The silex-edged bamboo splinter, the lip of a shell 

 ground sharp, the tooth of a shark — these are the cutting tools of the Pacific 

 islands, east as well as west. The definition is at fault which gives the sense 

 of saw to any word of a people which has no tool that cuts by notches in a 

 blade, of shear to men who know no scissors. It would be idle to seek to 

 differentiate these words by the tool employed, for a rude knife is all there 

 is. The most that we may venture upon is to segregate the data by the 

 former vowel. 



E. sele: Samoa, Futuna, Uvea, Nukuoro, Fotuna, Tonga, Niue, Hawaii, 

 Maori, Paumotu, Viti — altogether Polynesian. 

 seli: Fotuna, Efate — Melanesian, and wholly so if the Fotuna form 

 be considered due to neighboring New Hebrides influence. 

 I. sili: Mota, Maewo, Pak, Leon — all northern New Hebrides. 

 A. sala: Samoa, Efate. salo: Malo. 



sali: Efate, Nggela, Belaga. sal: Efate, Mota, Gog. 

 0. solo: Sesake. 



Viti and Maewo seem to indicate a root closed in v which does not else- 

 where appear, which had been quite lost at the time when Samoa erected 

 the verb selei upon the noun sele. 



204. 

 sik e, sek e, saki, to raise; sike-ti, to grasp with tongs. 



Samoa: si'i, to lift. Futuna: siki, to lift, to raise, to remove. 

 Uvea: fakasiisii, to raise; hiki, to lift up. Tonga: hiki, to lift, 

 to remove. Niue: hiki, to land, as fish from a canoe. Maori: 

 hiki, to lift up, to carry, to nurse. Mangareva : hiki, to hold 

 a child in the arms or on the knees. Paumotu : hiki, to fondle. 

 Mangaia: iki, to nurse a child in the arms. Marquesas: hiki, 

 hii, to nurse a child. Tahiti: hii, to nurse, to dandle, to take 

 a child in the arms. Hawaii : hii, to lift up, to carry, to nurse. 

 Viti: sikita, to raise, to lift up. 

 Aneityum : ahieng, to drag, to draw up. 

 Hebrew : hazak, to hold fast, to take hold of, to seize. 

 The Proto-Samoan stem is sikit. 



The Efate siketi is associable by reason of its form, but the sense is too 

 remote and too particular for a satisfactory identification. 



