Best. — Maori Numeration. 167 



thus : " Never mind, I've ten teeth in my upper jaw and ten 

 in my lower; hard or not, a hungry man can eat it." It was 

 used in reference to hard or tough foods. 



For my own part, I but seldom theorize anent matters 

 Maori. I am too busy at field work — i.e., collecting informa- 

 tion from original sources. But I have a lone theory, and it 

 concerns the word ngahuru, as used to denote ten. This I 

 will proceed to give — hai kata ma te marea — though it leave 

 me theoryless. 



When a Maori proceeds to count on his lingers in the 

 ancient manner he holds up his left hand open, fingers 

 straight, in front of him. In beginning to count he takes 

 hold of the top of the little finger of the left hand with the 

 thumb and forefinger of the right. As he counts "one" he 

 turns down the little finger until it touches, or nearly so, the 

 palm of the hand. He then in like manner takes hold of the 

 top of the next finger and turns that down as he counts "two," 

 and so on until he reaches " five," when he turns the thumb in. 

 Observe now the cream of my theory. All the fingers of the 

 left hand have now become Miru, ovhurua — contracted, drawn 

 in (from the verb huru = to contract, or draw in). This is one 

 hum, or ringa hum; but it will not bear the plural of the 

 definite article — i.e., nga — as a prefix. But he proceeds with 

 his counting up to ten, which he tallies on the fingers of his 

 right hand in the same manner as he did on the left, using 

 the thumb and forefinger of the left hand to turn down the 

 fingers of the right, but keeping the other three fingers of the 

 left hand still closed on the palm. On completing the ten 

 (ngahuru) he holds up both hands, with all fingers closed, as 

 he repeats the word ngahuru. Here is where the plural 

 comes in. Both hands (all the fingers thereof) are huru, or 

 /?W2< z— contracted ; hence vga hiiru, or nga ringa hxiru — two 

 contracted hands, ten fingers are hum'd. 1 want you to be 

 careful of this theory, and treat it with all respect. I shall 

 not make up any more : it is too exhausting. 



John Fraser states in his excellent paper on Polynesian 

 numerals that ngahuru and allied terms originally meant " the 

 whole " — that is, the whole of both hands : hence ten. Judg- 

 ing from some of the terms quoted by Fraser, it would appear 

 that huru alone meant ten : as in the Samoan e lua fulu 

 (e ma htLru) for twenty x-literally, two hum; also in e fa ga 

 fulu {e 2vha nga huru) for forty — literally, four hur^i. In the 

 Polynesian isle of Bukabuka the term katoa, a word signifying 

 " all," is used to denote ten. 



Another form of the word for ten is tingahuru. This form 

 was used only when speaking of persons. A person asks, 

 ■" Tokohia te whakareka ?" (How many persons are there of 



