168 Transactions. 



but did not carry the system beyond that number. Still, it is 

 clear that they could express any number up to 2,000 by the 

 use of the term topu — as E whitu rau ma rima topic = seven 

 hundred and fifty pairs = 1,500 ; kotahi mano topu — one 

 thousand pairs — 2,000. Higher numbers were, he says, 

 expressed by such terms as tini, kc. (see ante). 



The words mii aiid maha mean " many," the latter being 

 prefixed by toko when applied to persons. Iti is sometimes 

 used as = "few," though, strictly speaking, its meaning is 

 " small " (tckoiti) when applied to persons. Tvkohinu — some. 

 Ouou, ruarua, and torutoru are also used for " few," and are 

 sometimes, not always, given the prefix toko — -i.e., when 

 speaking of persons. The two last expressions are, it may be 

 observed, formed by doubling the words rua (two) and torn 

 (three). In Williams's Maori Dictionary we find rnriia = 

 both equally. {E tika rurua ana raua = T\\ey are both equally 

 correct.) 



We have seen that vidno is used for 1,000 — a specific term 

 for that number ; also that it is employed with a more vague 

 sense — "numberless," or "multitudinous" — though often 

 coupled with other expressions, as mano tini or mano rana ho 

 tini, mano tini ^vhaioio. The last is sometimes merely ti7ii 

 whaioio. Williams gives /iea = multitude, majority ; and mano 

 tuauriuri = very many. The numeration terms ngera, make- 

 hua, maioio, rea, given by Maunsell, I have not heard used, 

 nor yet the expression tiJii ivliakarere. They are probably 

 peculiar to tribes of the Waikato, or northern districts. Tini 

 makehua is a peculiar term. I cannot refrain from thinkmg 

 makehua allied to viakaMia, a generic term for stones. Tylor, 

 in his " Anthropology," gives some account of the origin of 

 numeration and ciphering, showing how many people reckoned 

 with stones used as counters ; as also the origin of the Latin 

 calculare, and our word calculate, from calculus — a pebble. 



As observed, none of the Maori terms for the digits seem 

 to have any connection with the names of the fingers, al- 

 though the word for five (rima) is apparently an old-time Poly- 

 nesian word for hand. The names of the fingers are takonui 

 (thumb), takoroa (forefinger), manau-a, mapere, toiti. These 

 are termed the tokorima a Maui (the five of Maui). The 

 prefix toko is employed because the five were persons — i.e., 

 the personifications of fire. For these were the Fire Children 

 of Mahuika, the Maori fire-goddess, who were destroyed by 

 Maui when he obtained fire for man. If, when ofiering food 

 to a Native, you apologize for the lack of knife and fork, he 

 will say, " Never mind, I have the tokorima a Maui."-'' 



* Sometimes simply tokorima. Ex., " E aurakina nei e okii tokorima." 



