540 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



of this word by considering the Marquesan hong, a turtle. 

 The Tongan fong means a piece of tcood, ivory, dx., inlaid ; 

 FONOFONG, to inlay ; Samoan, fono, to inlay, to patch. This 

 suggests that the sphcing-together, inlaying, &c., may have 

 been inlajdngwithtortoiseshell, or, more probably, thepiecing- 

 together as the plates are set in a turtle's armour. This leads 

 us to the consideration of the next word. 



HONU, deep ; honuhonu, deep water ; hghonu, deep. The 

 Marquesan form, hgng, a turtle, stands alone. Tahitian, 

 KO'tiv, the sea-turtle ; honuofai, the land-tortoise: Hawaiian, 

 HONU, the turtle : Tongan, fgnu, the turtle : Mangarevau, 

 HONU, the turtle. These dialects also have the sub repeated 

 form as full or deep — viz. : Tahitian, hohonu, deep , profound ; 

 the depths. Hawaiian, hghonu, to he deep, as water; tliedeep 

 sea. Tongan, fonu, full, fulness ; fgfonu, full, applied to 

 vessels. Marquesan, hghonu, deep, profound. Mangarevan, 

 HGHONU, the deep sea, the high seas ; hueuhghonu, high tide ; 

 vahihohonu, a deep place in the sea. Aniwan, fgnu, to heftill. 

 Ext. Poly. : Motu, honu, to he full. It seems irresistible to 

 connect this notion of the deep sea having given a name to the 

 sea-turtle, or else that the turtle has given a form of its name 

 to the deep sea : the words are regular and persistent, with 

 little or no variation. 



WHENUA, land. The word hgnu, the deep sea, vvould at 

 first sight seem to bear little relation to the general Polynesian 

 word for land. Whenua varies more in its vowel values than 

 perhaps any other word in our comparative vocabulary. It is 

 the Samoan fanua, Tahitian fenua, Tongan fonua, Earo- 

 tongiin ENUA, Marquesan fenua, Mangarevan enua, Futuua 

 FENUA, Aniwan fanua, Paumotan henua. Outside Polynesia 

 proper, among Malays and Melanesians, the word varies as 

 vanua, benua, banuwa, banua, vanuwa, vanue, &c. The 

 Hawaiian honua means tlie earth; a country ; flat land; a 

 foundation ; tlie hottom of any deep place, as of a pit, of the 

 sea, &c. ; thus apparently making hgnua a derivative from 

 HONU, deep. The evidence by agreement of the majority of 

 the dialects as to their vowel sounds is against the Hawaiian 

 HGNUA and the Tongan fonua, but nevertheless these may 

 have kept the original form lost by the other dialects, their 

 form having an apparent reason for its construction, whilst 

 that of the other variations has yet to be found. 



TAUEEKAREKA, a s/flrc; a rascal, a scoundrel. There 

 is no such meaning to be found in the other island dialects. 

 In Samoan taule'ale'a is aycung man : in Tahiti taureaeea 

 means the young, healthy, and vigoroxis of the people. In 

 Tongan toui^ekaleka h a beauty, a handsome mem; goodly; 

 well-proportioned. Ext. Poly.: In Sikayana taueekaeeka is 

 handsome. There is evidently a remarkable reversal of mean- 



