On the Word Amama. 



LEKORMANT' says: "All the hymns of the third book finish by the Accadian 

 word Kakama, which is translated in Assyrian by "amen," "aiiiami." 

 "^ The prayers of the Hawaiian priests, offered in the tem])les ( heiau) as well 



as those offered at private sacred places or in family worship, invariably closed with the 

 ejaculation aiiiania, equivalent to Amen. In Hawaiian aiiiaiiia, as a verb, means "to offer 

 in sacrifice." This word does not occur in any of the other Polynesian dialects that I 

 am acquainted with. It is found then alone as a sacerdotal expression that mav have 

 become obsolete or su])erseded in the other dialects. It has no etymon or material 

 foundation within the Polynesian language, and I therefore consider it to be a foreign 

 word imported into the language in far remote times and from a people of superior 

 culture, with whom the Polynesians at one time were conterminous or, in some now 

 unknown way, were connected. That people I believe to have been the old Accadian 

 Cushites. Fr. Lenormant, in his "La langue primitive de la Chaldee" (Paris, 1875) 

 pp. 126 and 271, gives the Accadian kakama as a participle of the verb kaka, "confirmer 

 une ])arole," and substantially "confirmation," "confirme." As a foreign word kakama 

 was subject to more or less corruption when passing intd the Polynesian language, and 

 those acc|uainted with the facility and frequency with which gutterals are elided in the 

 Hawaiian, Samoan and some other branches of Polynesian, would easily recognize the 

 Accadian kakama in the Hawaiian amama. To the Accadians kakama was a regular 

 participle of the verb kaka, meaning "it is confirmed," and as such was employed at the 

 close of a prayer or hymn. To the Polynesian (Hawaiian) it was a formula, an 

 ejaculation, employed on similar occasions in imitation of his teachers, but without any 

 inherent sense derived from his own language, as multitudes of Christians toda}' use 

 the word aincu without knowing its origin or sense. That the Hawaiians employed 

 amama as a verb, "to oft'er in sacrifice," I look u])on as a later adaption when the primary 

 sense of the word, if ever known, had been forgotten. 



"'Chaldean Magic, its Origin and Development, by Fr. Lenormant," London, Bagslor & Sons, p. 13. 

 (340) 



