Best. — Maori Numeration. 



153 



natural use when rua tekau (two tens) is used for twenty, and 

 toru tekau (three tens) for thirty, and so on. It prevents any 

 misunderstanding as to how many tens are meant. But in 

 former times, when tekaii was used to denote twenty, it was 

 not preceded by kotaht. 



Another prefix to numerals is the word taki. This, as 

 Williams's Dictionary states, "gives a distributive force to 

 numerals '" : hence takitahi = singly ; takirua = by twos, two 

 at a time ; taki toru = by threes ; and so on. Again, it is used 

 before other words, " denoting that what is said applies to 

 each one individually," to quote the same authority: Ka 

 takiomaoma ki te ngaherehere = Every one of them fied to the 

 forest. 



We will now give the modern system of Maori numeration, 

 such as has been used since the early days of European settle- 

 ment. The old system has been retained up to nine, but 

 ngahuru, the ancient term for ten, has been rejected, and 

 tekau substituted for it. This tekau is now the multiple of 



And so on. 



Here we note that ten has become tlie common mul- 

 tiple of Maori numeration. Apparently tliis change was 

 made in order to assimilate the Maori system of numeration 

 to that of the invading race. I can find no proof among the 

 Tuhoe people that this system given above was used in pre- 

 European days : hence it would appear that ten was not 

 used as a multiple in former times. 



It might be claimed that two was a multiple in the ancient 



