342 THE POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 



vene, island. Saa : hernia, henue, a village. Vanikoro : jenua, 

 land . Fagani : finua, a place. Nggela : mbona, id . Norbarbar : 

 vonio, island. Pak, Sasar, Vuras: vono, land. Leon: vono, 

 country. Motlav: na-vno, land. Baki: vonua, land. Sinau- 

 goro, Hula, Keapara: vanuga, village. 



Malay: banua, a land, a country. Bicol: banua, a town. Visayas: 

 banua, a village. Bugi: wanna, land. Malay: benua, a 

 region. Togean Islands: benua, a house. 



Hebrew: banah, to build, as a house; banu', built; binyaha, building. 



Dr. Macdonald makes this note: 



The Santo word has best preserved the primary meaning "house" or "building" ; then 

 a country, district or land is called bdntia, or fanua, because, like a house or village 

 (or building), it is the dwelling-place of men, or place of buildings. 



And all this because Hebrew banah is to build! As to the primary 

 meaning, circumspice. 



In Polynesia the structural idea finds no place whatever; fanua means 

 the land, from the mold at one's feet (Samoa, Aniwa, Maori, Tonga, Niue, 

 Hawaii) to the land in which one lives (Samoa, Aniwa, Fotuna, Futuna, 

 Uvea, Tahiti, Sikayana, Moiki, Fakaafo, Vate, Marquesas, Paumotu, Mana- 

 hiki, Maori, Bukabuka, Rarotonga, Tonga, Viti, Rotuma, Niue, Hawaii), 

 to the whole world of many lands (Aniwa, Maori, Mangareva, Tonga). 

 And what has the Hebrew builder to do with even the least of these? 



In our Polynesian material the variations affect but the first syllable. 

 Its radical vowel is a and it varies to e in eastern Polynesia and in the 

 islands of the Western Verge ; to o in Tonga, Niue, and Hawaii, again a 

 memorandum of the direct migration from Nuclear Polynesia to the north- 

 ern archipelago. The consonantal variations are all in the lingual series 

 upward, from / to v to h to wh to extinction. 



In our examination of the Melanesian material we shall observe the 

 same three vowels; a is very common; e is found in Baki, Epi, Santo, 

 Malekula, Retan, Saa, Vanikoro; o is found in Nggela and the Banks 

 Islands. Fagani gives us finua, the only occurrence of i in all our material. 

 The consonantal variation of the first syllable gives us / in Lamassa, 

 Bierian, Malekula, Vanikoro, Efate, Fagani. The common form is in*», 

 found in Arag, Vanua Lava, Marina, Maewo, Sesake, Malo, Mota, Kabadi, 

 Omba, Lakon, Baki, Ugi, Epi, Santo, Retan, Norbarbar, Pak, Sasar, Vuras, 

 Leon, Motlav. The h form is in Ugi, Laur, Lambell, Motu, Saa. The w 

 form is found only in the Duke of York group. Nggela gives us a down- 

 ward stronger variant in mbona. 



Polynesia admits its variability only in the first syllable, so in general 

 does Melanesia. But there are instances where other parts of the word 

 are affected. Final a becomes e in Omba, Saa, and vanishes in Lakon and 

 Lamassa. In Baki final a becomes o in venuo; Norbarbar vonio establishes 

 an alteration of u in the penult, which proceeds to extinction in vono of Pak, 

 Sasar, Vuras, Leon, Motlav, and indicates the same loss in Nggela mbona. 



The Indonesian identifications modify only the first syllable, the vowels 

 are a, e, o, the consonants b, v, w. 



In conclusion we are to note upon what slight ground rests the statement 

 that the primary signification is house. This meaning is found only in 



