158 Transactions. 



the invitation party?) and one might answer, "He tingahuru^'' 

 (There are ten), or " He ti-ngahuru pea taua ope tvhakareka."' 

 It is difficult to say what was the origui of this ti before the- 

 ordinary word for ten. Ti is a causative prefix in Maori, as 

 in tiicaha, tirama, &c. Vaux states that the causative prefix 

 lohaka is placed before " ten " in order to form the ordinal, just 

 as tua was used. He gives as examples tua-iwa and irhaka- 

 tehau {tekau for ten) — ninth and tenth. I have never heard 

 whaka so used, but it may be employed thus by tribes with 

 which I am not acquainted. (Yes ; see Maunsell's Grammar.) 



Tekau. — This term, as already observed, is now applied to 

 ten, but the old men of the Tuhoe Tribe agree that in pre- 

 European days it was applied to twenty only, never to ten. 

 They also state that no decimal system, or multiples of ten,, 

 were in use among the Natives prior to the arrival of Euro- 

 peans in these isles. Nor was any quinary system in use, 

 although there was a vigesimal method of numeration, as we- 

 shall presently see. 



In regard to the change made by Europeans in Native 

 systems of numeration, we have on record cases of such, 

 made by early missionaries in Earotouga, the Hawaiian isles, 

 and elsewhere. Many writers have been misled by the 

 modern system of counting among the Maori people of New 

 Zealand, and have treated it in their essays as though it were 

 the ancient system of the land, by which the value of their- 

 remarks or researches has been much impaired. I cannot 

 prove that among all the Maori tribes of New Zealand tekau = 

 twenty, but it was certainly so used among the Tuhoe, Ngati- 

 Awa, and Ngati-Porou Tribes. In counting by pairs or braces- 

 the term ngahuru topu (ten pairs) was used for twenty. 



We shall see that there are three main points to explain 

 in Maori numeration, if not three systems — viz., counting 

 singly, the binary, and the vigesimal or semi - vigesimal 

 methods — not to speak of the modern system, or the changes- 

 made when speaking of persons. The binary or dual method 

 was not used in counting persons, although the vigesimal 

 system was, where hokorua = forty, and hokotoru = sixty. 



As to tekaii for twenty : In the far-distant Paumoiu: 

 Group we find that twenty is rari takaii — literally, "one la- 

 kau," rari meaning "one" or "alone." In Tahitian, toa« = 

 twenty; Tongan, tekau = twenty, also fakakau = to put in 

 scores or twenties; Marquesan, teka2i = tv^'enty ; Mangaian 

 gives takau = ten pairs ; in Mangareva, takau = a double 

 ten, takao = twenty. This is good evidence in favour of the 

 Maori statement that tekaic was originally used for twenty. 

 Mr. J. T. Large states that at Aitutaki Island twenty was- 

 expressed by the term okotai takau (pkotai is hokotahi in tlie^ 

 New Zealand dialect). 



