228 THE POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 



We have now left for consideration the va and the ve. In each case 

 we have a record of the abrasion of final vowel and then of the consonant 

 left final, thus there is no reason in etymology why we should not regard 

 them as regular mutations of the fano stem. Since Mota shows vano in 

 Veverau and va in Maligo, where the differences are no more than dialectic 

 and of neighbor dialects at that, we are forced to the conclusion that va is 

 from the fano stem despite the efforts of our author to confuse the record 

 as shown in 1 1 . 



We are not left to the compelling power of resemblance visualized to 

 comprehend Dr. Macdonald's indentification of the fano stem with the 

 Hebrew panah. Here is his extended argument in full as spread upon the 

 record under the classification of "triliterals doubly weak, that is, with 

 two weak letters or quiescents." 



"Efate bano-mai or bana-mai, to come ; banats, i. e., ban ats, to go ; Maori 

 whanatu; Efate bano, to go; Maori whano, to verge toward, to go on, 

 proceeding toward; Hebrew panah, to turn, to turn oneself, to turn the 

 back, to turn in order to go anywhere. Thus banotu, whanatu, equals to 

 turn, going away, or outward, and bano-mai, bano-be, equals to turn 

 coming, to come." Any person who can find herein the common term 

 wherein to turn equals to go will have no greater difficulty in finding in fano 

 a trilateral, even though two of its letters are "weak or quiescent." 



148. 



batu, bate, to close up the roof by weaving thatch on the ridgepole. 



Samoa: fatu, to commence plaiting. Tonga: fatu, to tie rafters, 

 to commence plaiting. Futuna : fatu, fetu, to plait. Uvea : 

 fetufetu, id. Niue: fatufatu, to fold; fatunga, a rafter. Tahiti: 

 fatu, to plait, to braid. Paumotu: pifalufatu, to fold. 



Rapanui: haatu, to plait; hahatu, a plait. Hawaii : haku, to 

 braid a wreath; hakuhaku, to fold up. Maori: whatu, to 

 weave. Mangareva : atu, to fold up. 



Epi : bofungo, to close up the roof by weaving thatch on the ridgepole. 



Hebrew : 'abat, to interweave ; 'abot, wreathen work. 



So far as it is given us to follow out the tangles of some of these definitions 

 it appears that Dr. Macdonald has sought to draft a statement which should 

 allow him to incorporate fatu the ridgepole with this batu. 



The Polynesian has a word, stem fatu, which signifies to plait or braid 

 or weave or in some such way with deft fingers to reduce a tangle of shreds 

 to order. In Niue, Mangareva and the Paumotu the sense is restricted to 

 one of the incident operations in this broader meaning. In Hawaii we find 

 the two senses side by side, thus linking the two groups of meaning. With 

 this Efate batu is in accord so far as relates to the matter of weaving which 

 our author has distinguished by italics. This stem in Polynesia is nowhere 

 particularly applied to thatching, this roof covering being put on by imbri- 

 cation and not by interlacing. 



But Tonga fatu to tie rafters, Niue fatunga a rafter, are distinctly roof 

 words. That, while they are identical in form with the weaving fatu, they 

 are not homogenetic therewith is apparent in the existence of Efate fatu 

 a ridgepole. In Samoa the roof fatu is found in fatu'ulu the thatch next 



