164 Transactions. 



stating numbers between one hundred and another, the terms 

 ma ma, ma torn, ma loha, &c., were used to imply " and 

 twenty," " and thirty," " and forty," and so on, though, 

 strictly speaking, the- expressions mean "and two," "and 

 three," &c. Another ancient method of stating 240 was 

 kotahi rail, hokorua te paepae — one hundred [topu understood), 

 the excess a hokorua. 



But to return to Table No. 2 : In this is shown the 

 method employed in counting by pairs — i.e., the terms used 

 for every number from 2 to 102, and a few of the leading 

 figures from that number up to 1,000, which the reader will 

 have no difficulty in following. But it must be mentioned 

 here that a person engaged in counting a number of articles 

 by the dual method would not make use of all these terms ; he 

 would not count the odd numbers, where the expression tau- 

 tahi is employed. The terms for odd numbers are merely 

 inserted to show what words express such numbers. Such 

 are used only to express the total when that total contains an 

 odd number. Observe : A fowler visits his bird-snares every 

 morning in order to collect the birds. Having completed his 

 round, he proceeds to count the birds taken. This he does by 

 taking up two birds at a time and laying them aside. For the 

 first brace he counts '' Ka tahi pic"; for the second, " Ka 

 rua pu" ; for the third pair, " Jf a torn pu" ; for the fifth, 

 '' Ka rima piu" ; for the tenth brace, " Ngaliuru pjc." Here 

 the word ka is dropped, but it is sometimes resumed for eleven 

 brace, as ngaJiurio pu, ka tahi pu, and so on ; ngahuru pu, ka 

 iiva pu, for thirty-eight. It is not usual to use ka before 

 hokorua, hokotoru, &c., but it is sometimes resumed after 

 them : as hokorua, ka tahi pu, for forty-two ; hokori^na, ka 

 lohitu -pu, for 114, &c. Indeed, I am inclined to believe that 

 this was the more correct way of expressing numbers when 

 actually engaged in counting. 



Suppose our friend the fowler has taken seventy-seven 

 birds: he goes on counting by the brace [ini) up to seventy- 

 six — hokotoru, c warn pu (or ka want pu) ; then, casting the 

 remaining bird on the heap, he says, " tautahi " (an odd one). 

 The number of birds taken is expressed by hokotoru, e waru 

 pu, tautahi (sixty, eight brace, odd one). — Q.E.D. 



The singular feature of this system of counting is the com- 

 bination of the dual and vigesimal systems. It is purely dual 

 up to twenty, but from the number twenty-two onwards to 

 thirty-nine the numbers hinge upon twenty — as " ten brace, 

 one brace," " ten brace, two brace," and so on — until the next 

 twenty (i.e., forty) is reached, where we note the special term 

 hokorua, which again has pair after pair added to it until 

 sixty (another special term) is attained, and so on to 199. 



