178 THE POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 



Polynesian f may become: / (86), b (83), m (93), n (170), w (296), 



y (296). 



We fail to see how such movement, even if established on far 

 better ground than we have here, can be brought into harmony with 

 the foregoing briefly stated principles. 



These principles are fundamental in the three speech families 

 which share the possession of this common element in the vocabu- 

 lary. A fourth family, claiming admission to the clan yet showing 

 so plainly that it fails to conform to the law of the household, must 

 knock long at the door and long in vain. 



One more point and we are done with Dr. Macdonald and his 

 Semitic origins. If he has proved his thesis his proof must exclude 

 all use of the same materials to prove some other origin. There is 

 another Richmond in the field, long earlier in the field, and he has 

 been just as substantial and just as stout in defense of his theory 

 that the Polynesians stem in the pre-Sanskrit Aryans. In the third 

 volume of Judge Fornander's "Polynesian Race" will be found 

 dozens of instances in which he uses the same Polynesian and the 

 same Indonesian material that Dr. Macdonald groups about his 

 Melanesian data for the proof of Semitic origin. Yet employing the 

 same material Fornander sees naught but Aryan source. 



Let us compare the two lines of argument in but a single instance 

 to serve as illustration. Brevity will best be conserved by pinning 

 such comparison on 243. In this Dr. Macdonald carries the Samoan 

 fili, to plait, through Melanesian and Indonesian to the Arabic fatala 

 and jatV and the Ethiopic fatlat, to twist, to spin. Hear now Judge 

 Fornander as champion of the other cause : * 



Greek, eUw f to roll up, to press together, pass to and fro, to wind, turn 

 round ; ^-iWw, turn round or about, roll, whirl ; eXtg, twisted, curled ; s, any- 

 thing of a spiral shape, twist, curl, coil; tXXut, to roll, of the eyes, to squint, 

 look askance; ?AA©?, squinting; Ma?, a rope, band; Uiy£, a whirlpool. 



Sanskr., vel, vehl, to shake, tremble; vcllita, crooked; anu-vellita, a band- 

 age. To this Sanskrit vel Benfey refers the Greek sUai, the Latin volvo, 

 and the Gothic walojan. Liddell and Scott also incline to connect eUw and 

 volvo with the same root. To me it would seem as if the Sanskrit vrij, 

 whose "original signification," Benfey says, is "to bend," and the Sanskrit 

 vrit, whose "original signification," Benfey says, is "to turn," were nearer 

 akin to the primary form from which the Greek eUw, tXXm, and the Poly- 

 nesian hili, wiri, descend : that primary form being vri, now lost to the 

 Sanskrit, with a primary sense of to bend, twist, turn over, braid, and of 

 which vel, veil, or vehl, is possibly another secondary and attenuated form. 

 With such a Sanskrit vri, surviving in vrij and vrit, the derivation of the 

 Latin filum, thread, as twisted, spun; of the Latin varus, bent asunder, 

 parting from each other, varix, crookedness; of the Saxon wile, deceit; 

 of the Swedish willa, confusion, error, wilse, astray, becomes easy and 

 intelligible. 



*3 Polynesian Race, 117. 



