THE SOUTHERN GATEWAY. 489 



in the second syllable. The extirpation of an inner syllable in these lan- 

 guages is rare, but in this case it is incontestable ; this gives us the tertiary 

 series tena, tega, Una, tenan. Simultaneous loss of / and ng gives a sec- 

 ondary series of taia, taiya, kaia, haia-na. Mekeo aina shows loss of t and /, 

 but retains a trace of ng. 



Forms associable with the stem kanus hitherto postulated are kanu, kan, 



kanudi, kanuna, kanuta, kanunu, kaninu, kanuru, kinura, kunruvi. The 



series of the anus type runs aninu, anumai, anodi, aniulu, atiulu, ainuku. 



It may be that the final s of the two stems appears in kanudi, kanuta, 



anodi; but it is unsafe to attempt to trace it beyond these well-established 



mutations. „*-„ 



360. 



A critical point is the position of the stem /. From it we obtain two 

 series : the more direct is vua, pua, bua, gua, hua; the other, affected by 

 metathesis quasi ufa, is uwa, uwe, ova, owu, awu; this accounts for the 

 Kabadi and Rubi forms. It is a matter of no great moment, save in the 

 establishment of radiant foci for this loan material, that while ua might 

 devolve from the other series it follows more normally in the languages 

 where it is found as a reduction form of uwa. 



361. 



Of the three stems conjoined in these data, New Guinea lacks the Poly- 

 nesian puaka. Therefore I have omitted the phonetic collation of the 

 material. The data are so ordered, however, that it will be easy to follow 

 the ramifications of the stems poro and po in this region. Nowhere in this 

 mass of material does any middle term appear by which we may certify 

 ourselves that poro and po are homogenetic. 



What, now, is the position of these three dozen languages of New Guinea 

 from which we have extracted material, some more and some less satis- 

 factory? In 1892, and again in 1894, Dr. Sidney Herbert Ray declared 

 them Melanesian. In 1907, in the linguistic volume of the Cambridge 

 reports, he continues this designation with renewed argument in its behalf. 

 In 1 9 10 Dr. Seligmann, working upon this material and a valuable supple- 

 ment of his later collection, follows this leadership and designates the people 

 of the eastern Gulf of Papua and the continuing coast and islands well along 

 into the Louisiade Archipelago as Melanesian. At the point of demarca- 

 tion in the Gulf of Papua, approximately at Cape Possession, set down by 

 these students, there is a difference in the people ; more than the language 

 shows it. They have decided that the difference is one between Papuans 

 and Melanesians. 



In this inquiry we shall devote no attention to the differences of physical 

 appearance, to the diversity of custom of life; we are limited to the evidence 

 which may be found to lie in language. 



What, then, is a Melanesian? In Dr. Ray's studies the men eastward of 

 Cape Possession who differ from the men living westward of that boundary 

 point are the Melanesians of New Guinea. We are then to discover whence 

 he derives his knowledge of the Melanesians. It is from Dr. Codrington 

 that he has drawn — from the same work which we have been so glad to 

 use in this work, albeit to a far different conclusion. 



