542 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



So by this it would seem that the tito was not only tattooing, 

 but that it was in stripes or dots united closely together. The 

 corresponding Maori word has none of these meanings ; it is 

 boldly " to compose a romance, to invent a fable." If there 

 is any connection between the Maori and the other Polynesian 

 meanings of tito, it must signify that rows of pecked-out dots 

 or stripes were used in which to compose or preserve a 

 narrative or fable, unless the allusion is to the lost art of 

 writing as being itself a fable or romance of times passed out 

 of mind. 



We have seen that to7igi and tito mean to peck or dot in 

 stripes. Let us examine the Maori word [tuhi) now used for 

 writing as we understand it. The modern word for printing 

 is ta, once used for tattooing (so well has the genius of the 

 language preserved the faithful unconscious record), but the 

 word for handwriting is tuhi. Tuhi properly means " to stain, 

 to paint, to delineate, to point out"; also, "part of the tat- 

 tooing on the face."* In Samoan it means " striped, to mark 

 native cloth, to point out as a road." In Tongan it signifies 

 "striped"; in Marquesan, "to point out with the finger"; 

 in Mangaian, "marked, inscribed"; in Futuna, "to point 

 out, to make known." In Hawaiian we again come upon 

 the more refined meanings, " to show, to point out, to teach, 

 to give an appellation, to reproach with a reminder of some 

 former delinquency, to think, to imagine."! 



It is hard to see how such meanings as "to teach, to 

 think, to imagine, to remind of some former delinquency," 

 can be connected with tattooing and striped native clbth 

 unless the stripes were lines of writing appealing to the 

 intelligence. 



I have only one more word to bring to your notice, and I 

 was led to the discovery of its connection with this subject 

 only because I have devoted some time lately to the study of 

 Paumotuan. It is the Maori word nakonaho, signifying 

 " recollection, anxious thought." The Paumotuan form gives 

 the following meanings : " Like that, thus, a spot, a stain, 

 striped, variegated, | to tattoo, tattooing, to write." The 

 Tahitian means "the markings on the skin" (tatau). The 

 Hawaiian signifies " a slight ripple on the water, the ridges of 



* It may bo connected ^Yith tui, to prick. 



t Maori, tuhi, to write, to sketch, to delineate, to paint, to stain, to 

 point out, to indicate, part of the tattooing on the face. Samoan, tusi, to 

 mark native cloth, to write, to point out as a road ; tusitusi, striped. 

 Tongan, tiihitiilii, striped. Marquesan, tnJii, to point out the way with 

 the linger. Mangaian, ^wi, marked, inscribed. (Also compare IMelanesian- 

 Futuna, tatusi, paint ; Malay, tulis, to draw, to paint ; Javanese, ttdis, 

 painting, writing.) 



J Just as wo saw that zohaka-iroiro meant " variegated." 



