Best. — Maori Numeration. 163 



subjoined numeral when the word takitahi (single, or singly) 

 was added: as hokorua takitahi = twenty ; hokotoru takitahi — 

 thirty ; and so on. 



Confirmation has been received regarding the term tekau 

 maha ngahuru for thirty, not only local, but also from the 

 Ngati-Awa Tribe. I am unable to account for the syllable ha. 



Table No. 2 : This gives the dual system of numeration 

 formerly in use among the Maori people, the counting by pairs, 

 which was a common custom. This form of binary numera- 

 tion was used only for game, baskets of food, and so forth, but 

 was not applied to the genus homo. I have remarked above 

 that the binary method was not used when counting persons. 

 This remark needs some explanation. Certainly the dual 

 method of numeration, as given in Table No. 2, was not used 

 for persons, but another form of counting in pairs'^ was used 

 for persons. Apart from the matter as to whether the 

 prefix hoko multiplied the numeral ten or twenty times, 

 there were other expressions used which doubled the 

 number given. We have seen that kotahi rati ma whitu 

 (one hixndred and seventy) was used for 340. This was 

 certainly applied to persons, as in giving the numbers of 

 a war-party. This, and hokoiuhitu for 140 men, were such 

 common terms that the word topu does not seem to have 

 been employed to denote the fact that the number given 

 meant so-many couples. But with other numbers the evi- 

 dence seems to be in favour of the term topu, or takitahi, 

 having been used : as kotahi rau takitahi (one hundred, 

 singly, or once told), and E wha ran topu tazia ope (That 

 party consisted of four hundred [persons] twice told, or 

 doubled). These expressions are used when speaking of per- 

 sons, and seem to have been so used formerly. Many of 

 my old Native friends say, " Kaore i takirua te tatau mo tc 

 tangata" — i.e., persons were not counted in pairs. I believe 

 they mean that, when actually counting a number of persons, 

 the system given in Table No. 2 was not used. And it cer- 

 tainly was not. A person would not have counted persons 

 in this manner — ka tahi pu (two), ka rua pu (four), ka torn 

 pu (six), &c. — as he would in counting game, &c. ; nor would 

 he have said ka torn pu, tautahi, for seven persons. He 

 would count them singly, and for seven persons he would 

 have used tokowhitu (see Table No. 3). But if he had 

 counted, say, 240 persons, and was asked how many there 

 were, he would have replied, " Kotahi rau, hokorua "—one 

 hundred {topu understood) and a, hokorua ; or " Ko tahi ran 

 ma ivha" — one hundred and forty {topic understood). In 



* Or not exactly in pairs, as in Table No. 2, but the doubling of stated 

 numbers, a " twice-told " mode. 



