292 THE POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 



Tonga is anomalous; we do not often find the excision in Polynesian of a 

 whole root syllable ; yet the sense and the identity of the remnant seem to 

 prove these forms of the polo stem. 



Backward of Efate, save the Matupit resemblance, I recognize no identi- 

 fication. 



2 45« 

 bwosi, to twist (a rope). 



Samoa: fust, a belt, a girdle, to tie, to bind, to gird, to clasp, to 

 embrace. Tonga: fuhi, to fasten on. Niue: fuhi, a bunch, 

 to tie together. Uvea : fihu, to tie. Hawaii : hut, a bunch, 

 a cluster. Mangareva: huhui, a tied-up bundle of fruit, a 

 cluster, a bunch. 



Viti: vusi, to suspend by a loop, to fasten, to tie up. 



Nengone: wose, to bind; nawose, a band. 



Malay: pusing, to twist, to turn round. 



Arabic : 'afasa, to twist. 



Because Dr. Macdonald has identified bwosi with fusi I have here expanded 

 the ramifications of that stem, the more particularly as it has Melanesian 

 affiliations. Yet I do not by any means accept the initial identification. 

 Principally from the sense I regard bwosi as homogenetic with fisi (223); 

 and the form variety is no more than we find in other Efate identifications 

 which we are quite ready to accept as valid. 



Of Polynesian fusi we are to note that it is wholly Nuclear Polynesian, 

 the Uvea variant being readily resolvable as metathetic of the 1432 type. 

 This fusi we find in Viti, Nengone, and Malay. The Arabic is a triliteral, 

 *fs, and we can not account for the sacrifice of the initial. 



The Hawaiian and Mangareva forms I have expressly included in order 

 that I might clarify a Niue peculiarity. They are not of the fusi stem; 

 their stem is fui, so found in Samoa and in the Polynesian of each migration 

 swarm. Niue fuhi is of the fusi stem in the sense of tying; to the cluster 

 (fui) sense it has assigned the fusi stem. This I can not regard as a transi- 

 tion form between the two stems, for neither s nor h undergoes extinction 

 in passing from Samoa to Niue. I take it as simply a Niue blunder. That 

 such blunders may happen I have already made sufficiently clear in Futuna 

 afu (239). 



Dr. Macdonald equally identifies the Malay pusing with fisi (223). 



246. 

 buma, funga, to flower, to blossom. 



Samoa: funga, a flower, a blossom. Nukuoro: hunga, a flower. 

 Sesake : vunga, a blossom, a berry. Malekula Pangkumu : pung, 



to blossom. 

 Malay: bunga, flower, blossom. Malagasy: vuni, flower; mamuni, 



to blossom. 

 Arabic: fukah, flower. 



It is impossible to avoid the impression that there lies somewhere a con- 

 nection between this relatively infrequent word and the widespread fua 

 (360) fruit. The consideration of this stem, therefore, will be involved, 

 so far as may be fitting, in the discussion of that item. 



