314 



THE POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 



tano au, ashes. Mota: rav, dusk; ravrav, dusk of evening; 

 malurav, id. ; marav, dim, misty. Pak, Sasar, Alo Teqel : uwtis, 

 ashes. Mosin: tuwus, id. Mota, Gog: tarowo, id. Vuras, 

 Motlav: wowo, id. Lo: ivowa, id. Norbarbar: powo, puio, id. 

 Keapara: abu, id. Mekeo: ae-apu, id. Motu: ^a/m, id. 

 Tavara: gahue, id. Awalama: gahuwe, id. Sariba: gavara, id. 



Malay: abu,dabu, labu, dust, ashes; kalabu, klabu, ashy, ash-colored. 

 Java: aww, fc/ituitt, dust, ashes. Malagasy: vuvuka, id. 



Arabic: fca&a (/*a&w), to rise, to float in the air (dust), to become 

 like dust, ashes; habwat, dust; habut, dust, dust mixed with 

 ashes; hebwa, fine dust, powder; mutahabbi, weak in sight. 



There can be no doubt that an intimate relationship obtains between 

 efu, lefu, and nefu. It is too early to establish the relation, yet from 

 the form I am hopeful that further inquiry along the lines which I have 

 already discussed in the presentation of my theory of development by 

 consonantal modulants will lay bare the life history of this interesting 

 group. The only backward glimpse which our material affords is that 

 which Tonga efuhia gives us of a Proto-Samoan stem efus, and this is found 

 again to the westward. 



As the stems indicate relationship by their form, so do the several signifi- 

 cations show that the stems are so near that it is possible for a certain 

 meaning to appear first in one and then in another. The following tabu- 

 lation will make that clear : 



Dust. 



Samoa 



Tonga 



Niue 



Uvea 



Futuna . . . . 

 Nukuoro. . . 



Maori 



Moriori . . . . 



Tahiti 



Marquesas . 

 Rarotonga . 

 Mangareva 

 Hawaii. . . , 



efu 



efu 



efu 



efu, nefu 



efu 



rehu 



nehu 



rehu 

 ehu 



ehu, neu 

 ehu 



Ashes. 



Vapor. 



lefu 



efu 



efu 



efu, lefu 



lefu 



lefu 



rehu. . . 



rehu 



rehu 



ehu 



reu 



ehu, rehu 



lehu 



lefu 

 nefu 



I ehu 

 nehu 

 rehu 



ehu 



Darkness. Twilight. Muddy 



nefu 

 nefu 



nefu 

 nefu 



rehu, nehu 



reu 

 ehu, lehu 



nefu 



reh u 

 ehu 



nefu 

 ehu 



nefu 



ehu 

 ehu 



A glance down these columns will show how the sense plays from one 

 stem to each of its associates ; there is but one column that does not carry 

 all three stems, and the Maori employs all three to express the signification 

 vapor. We are, therefore, wholly justified in dealing with the three as a 

 unit in examining their exterior relations. 



In the three Polynesian lists there is little which calls for explanation, 

 for we scarcely need pause here to dissect the few simple composites. The 

 Moriori purungehu ashes is readily reducible as a metathesis upon the 

 Maori pungarehu. The crepuscular sense is plain in Tonga, Tahiti, and the 

 Marquesas as an immediate development out of the yet more general 

 meaning of darkness and indistinctness of vision ; yet in Mangareva rehurehu 

 we find the word transferred from the gloaming before the dawn to a posi- 



