308 THE POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 



generally, but not universally, at intervals, and not in a continuous line, shows that 

 it is not one which can be traced to one center, from whence it may be thought to have 

 been introduced by commerce or modern intercourse. The same conclusion is enforced 

 by the consideration of the great variety of the form of the word, which ranges from 

 ruma to eng. If a word appearing in its full form in Malay were to appear corrupted 

 and changed as it receded in distance from the region in which Malay is spoken, we might 

 well suppose the Malay the original. But when the changes in form bear no certain 

 relation to the distance from Malayan regions, and the variations are local and discon- 

 nected, it is not so; some center there must have been, but it can not now be pointed out. 

 The geographical range of the word must be observed by comparing the vocabularies 

 with the map. The variation of the form can be seen in the vocabularies. In Mr. 

 Wallace's list the Malay rumah and the Javanese umah give at once typical forms, one 

 with and the other without an initial consonant. Of the first type there are also luma 

 and huma, of the second um and probably om. (The Ceram word jeiom, used by 

 Alfuros, is probably om, a form of uma, with the collective prefix fei, Fiji vei.) Out of 

 thirty-three words twenty-two are forms of these types. The variety of forms in 

 Melanesia is greater, but the types are the same; ruma is in Duke of York and San 

 Cristoval, uma in Api and Lakona. The vowel also changes, and ruma, with changes 

 of initial consonant and vowel, becomes luma, nume, huma, rima, nima. By similar 

 change uma becomes ima, ema, and dropping the vowels at the beginning or end, 'ma, 

 im, eom, em, eng. To account for this last change it is enough to say that, in the 

 neighborhood where it is made at any rate, the m is the nasal one which, as mentioned 

 above, regularly changes into ng; ima, im, makes eng, as lima "a hand" makes Fiji 

 linga, Maori ringa. This m in Nengone is written 'm, and the Nengone 'ma is identical 

 with the Santa Cruz mwa. 



It will be noticed that Efate has three forms, all more or less remote from 

 the primal stem. Suma is found nowhere else, this being the only language 

 in which the word has initial s. Himwa, so far as the initial is concerned, 

 seems to be a transition form leading to the general imwa-ima of the north- 

 ern New Hebrides. Uma is found in Epi and the distant Loyalties. 



As to the Arabic I venture the suggestion that it taxes philological prin- 

 ciples far less to present its affiliation with the German Heimath and Heim. 



266. 

 tanu mi, tanu-maki, to cover with earth, to put into the ground; tan i, 

 tun i, to earth it, to cover with earth and then with anything ; 

 tano, tan, earth of any kind, soil, clay, ground. 

 Samoa : tanu, to bury, to pave ; tanufale, to cover a house with coco- 

 nut leaves in a storm; tanuma'i, to cover up with. Tonga: 

 tanu, tanua, to bury, to conceal, to hide ; tanuanga, a burial place ; 

 tanuma, to bury the dead by numbers; tanumaki, to earth up 

 any plant or tree, to hoe, to cover up; tanumia, to be buried 

 by falling of earth debris ; tanutanu, to bury, to cover over with 

 earth ; tano, a burial place. Futuna : tanu, to bury, to inhume, 

 to cover with earth; tanuma, a tomb, ditch, trench. Nuguria : 

 tanu, to bury; taruma (? tanuma), a grave. Niue: tanu, to 

 bury, to cover up. Uvea: tanu, to bury; tanuma, tano, ceme- 

 tery, sepulcher; tanumanga, a pit. Maori: tanu, to bury, to 

 plant, to fill up. Tahiti : tanu, to plant, to bury. Mangaia : 

 tanu, to plant. Mauke: tanu, to bury. Rapanui: tanu, to 

 hide, to conceal, to plant ; tangata tanu kai, a cultivator. Man- 

 gareva : tanu, to plant, to bury, to inhume. Paumotu : tanu, 

 to cultivate. Fotuna : no-tanu, no-tanumia, to bury. Hawaii : 

 kanu, to bury, to cover up in the earth. 



