Teegear. — Curious Polijncsiaii Words. 533 



pleasure which the accumulation and assimilation of this mass 

 of new and curious information has given me kept the current 

 of fresli interest daily flowing to refresh me through the long 

 drudgery of the actual labour necessary for the production of a 

 lexicon. I propose to lay before you some of the results of my 

 work, aiid to share with others the pregnant suggestions which 

 have unavoidably evolved themselves during consideration of 

 the subject. Just as a comparative anatomist, taking the 

 bodies of a dozen different creatm-es and laying them side by 

 side, would find intense pleasure in comparing arm with wing, 

 and muscle with muscle, and bone with bone, noticing the ex- 

 quisite adaptations and dw^^lling on the curious' differences, so 

 I have found pleasure in laying side by side the disjecta mem- 

 hra of these Polynesian dialects, noting the coincidences, 

 pondering over the discrepancies, and finding possibilities of 

 historical research in the change of a letter or the metathesis 

 of a form. 



In tlie first part of my paper I will give an account of 

 some of the interesting comparatives ; in the second part I 

 will attempt to show that it is possible that the Maori of New 

 Zealand may not be properly understood at present in many 

 of its words, and that the only way by wliicli restoration can 

 be attempted is the comparative method. 



The races inhabiting the Pacific, broadly divided into the 

 Polynesian, Melanesian, and Micronesian peoples, have among 

 them a multiplicity of languages and dialects. The greater 

 number of these are in the possession of the jMelanesian 

 people, the black-skinned and woolly-haired inhabitants of the 

 Western Pacific. This people, occupying New Guinea, the 

 Solomon Islands, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, the 

 Loyalty Islands, &c., have their eastern boundary in the Fiji 

 Islands, which lie at the point of the wedge Melanesia drives 

 into Polynesia proper, the home of the light-brown, straight- 

 haired, level-eyed Polynesian. The Fijians, although the bulk 

 of the people are of Papuan blood, have been crossed exten- 

 sively by Polynesians from Tonga, especially on the coasts 

 looking towards the Friendly Islands, and their language 

 bears even more strong evidence of crossing than is betrayed 

 by their physique. Nearly one-third of the Fijian language 

 consists of Polynesian words, and of words in singularly pure 

 and valuable preservation ; but concerning the remainder of 

 their vocabulary the Maori linguist feels himself in the. 

 presence of an utterly strange and foreign tongue. Had I 

 to deal with a comparison of the Melanesian languages, 

 •it would indeed be a herculean task : I use the word 

 "languages" advisedly, for they hardly appear to be mere 

 dialects of a common language. In many cases Melanesians 

 inhabiting difl'erent islands in the same group cannot under- 



