342 J'nnKiiulcr L'ollccfloii of Ha7<'aiiaii I'olk-lorc. 



scntati\es of the orioinal root which may ha\'e had the coni])ound sound of nib, — iiibcki, 

 iiihcsi — of which (hfferent dialects retained one or the other, or discarded botli. 'i'hat 

 the original idea expressed by that word was metals in general, and not any specific 

 kind of metal, 1 consider conclusively shown from the Amboyna term for silver, pisi- 

 piitili. meaning literallv white iron, as well as from the various specific metals which 

 the word has been made to designate, such as iron, copper, brass and silver. 



Among the Southern Polynesians, the Rarotongans also had a name for iron. 

 They called it kitriiiia: but I am unable to trace its linguistic relationship. It may 

 refer to the Gilolo, kitr-achi, the name for gold as well as for yellow. If -achi in kur- 

 aclii is a dialectual variation of the Celebes term asc or ivasy, then the first syllable 

 represents kura. a Polynesian and pre-Malay word for red, bright, yellow, and thus the 

 compound word kiiraclii becomes analogous to the Amboyna pisi-piifili, and would 

 signify the red or yellow iron or metal. 



Koltf says, "The Malay language is the lingua franca of the entire Indian Ar- 

 chipelago, but it is only generally understood in those places which enjoy some com- 

 merce. The natives who reside in the mountains, and those who have no comnnmi- 

 cation with strangers, speak only a dialect of their own."' 



The Malay word ma means mother. Compare the Hawaiian mama, to chew the 

 food for the purpose of feeding children, and the Hawaiian ii-iiia, now only used in the 

 du|)licate f(»rm iiina-uma. the breast of a female. IJ itself means breast, what protrudes; 

 hence also ama. satisfied with food. Latin, ma-iiia, the breast and mother. 



The Malay ma is probably the oldest form, if not the original meaning, which is 

 better expressed perhaps in the Latin ma-ma, primarily breast, then mother; also in the 

 Hawaiian n- ma, now obsolete in the simple form, but also meaning the female breast, — 

 a com])ound word of which ;/ alone means the breast, what iM-otruded, and ma, which 

 does not occur in the Hawaiian language in that sense, hut whose duplicated form 

 ma-ma means to chew anything with intention of spitting it out again, as azva. and as 

 children were fed. .\-ma nieans satisfied with food. Hebrew, .////. moflicr; Greek, 

 .Imoiia:^ 



The Hawaiian mamo, descendants, ])osterity, grandchildren, etc., derives from 

 the same root. But while the Malay ma and Java mbo signify "mother," the composites 

 of these words signify "father" in five-sixths of the Malay or pre-Malay dialects, while 

 nine-tenths of the same dialects employ the word hiiia or ina and its combinations to 

 express the idea of "mother." The Hawaiian-Polynesian mafiia, ])arent, I consider a 

 composite word from the ])rimal ma and the word tita, which in the Sulu dialects signi- 

 fies "husband," whatever may ha\e been its original meaning. In the Hawaiian this 

 word occurs only in composite forms as an epithet of relationship, as kua-ana the older 

 of two children of the same sex. Kai-ku-nanc, "the brother of a sister," kn probably 

 contracted from kita. Kai-kn-waliinc, "the sister of a brother." The Amboyna antl 

 Ceram word for wt^nan "maliiiia" recurs also in the Hawaiian kai-ka-maliinc, "a female 

 descendant, a daughter." A'o/ is a generic term of relationshi]), ka is the article "the" 

 incorporated with the word "maliine" which is but another form of "zva-liinc." 



Tuydiics of the Dutch brin of imir Dourga, hy D. VV. Kollif, trans, by G. W. Earl, p. 1.33, London, 1840. 



