DATA AND NOTES. 401 



race has so long possessed that only recently they were classed as instincts, 

 it was the sense of hearing which first came up for particular designation. 

 I am somewhat in doubt as to this statement ; it is hard to comprehend the 

 psychology of conditions so different from our own. The same material 

 might equally bear the interpretation that the other sense was most 

 commonly understood as that of hearing. 



In a psychology of which the sense perception is at no higher speciali- 

 zation than sight and the other sense it will not surprise us to discover that 

 the sense of touch has not yet been isolated from the merely mechanical 

 pressure of the skin upon an exterior object. I do not say that tactile 

 sense is as yet unrecognized, but I will let the vocabulary tell its own story 

 in a few of the better-known Polynesian languages. 



Samoa: tangotango, to feel; it is used in the sense to take hold of, 

 therefore it means no more than to have in the hands or to have 

 the hands upon. 



Tonga : ala, alafi, to feel ; its particular use is to touch, to feel after 

 with the hand. 



Viti : yamotha, to feel; to feel for with the hand, to run the hand over. 



Maori: whawha, to feel; to handle, to grasp. 



Hawaii : haha, to feel ; to move the hand over a thing. 



These are representative of the central and of the distal languages of 

 Polynesia and they represent varying culture planes. It is clear that in 

 not one of them does the sense of feeling exist independently of the physical 

 impact which constitutes the touching. 



In the matter of form the Polynesian variations of longo are strictly 

 according to rule, except that in Samoa and Niue a longona form is intro- 

 duced, not found elsewhere until we reach Indonesia. 



In the eastern gateway we find an extended form longoro, which may be 

 found again in Malay dangar. In the New Hebrides the termination which 

 varies from tagi to te is verb-formative. The Omba ronghogosi may best 

 be understood as a composite. In Nggela and Vaturanga we have rongovia, 

 and in Vaturanga rongomia, consonant forms which agree neither with the 

 forms in the eastern gateway nor with those found in Nuclear Polynesia. 



In Indonesia Java rungu is a satisfactory identification ; the Malay is 

 far less sure. Matu langan is in good form accord with Nuclear Polynesian 

 langona, but the sense is not so clearly of kin. The Malagasy rohona inter- 

 jects a syllable for which we have no means of accounting. 



The skeleton of the Semitic is 'dn, 'zn, with which it is impossible to 

 establish our Polynesian longo in any sort of accord. 



337- 

 sa, to be bad, evil. 



Samoa: isa, an expletive of disapproval. Tonga: sa, an expression 

 of disgust and disapproval ; isa, to hiss, to disapprove. Fu- 

 tuna: saa, indecent, improper; isa, exclamation of indignation. 

 Fotuna: sa, bad. 

 Viti: tha, bad; isa, interjection of disapprobation. Rotuma: 

 raksa, bad. 



