Best. — Maori Numeration. 169 



It is a very ancient mytli, and curious withal, that of the 

 origin of fire — that is to say, of the Fire Children. " It was 

 in an age long past away, before man was, that the thought 

 came to the son of Tangotango [i.e., to the sun] that he 

 would send his child to the lower world to convey to his 

 descendants there a great boon, the blessing of fire. Hence 

 he said to his child, to Auahi-tu-roa, ' Go you to convey a 

 boon to our descendants in the world.' And his son asked, 

 ' How shall I give it ? ' The sun replied, ' Give them fire ' 

 [tokorima] . So Auahi-tu-roa descended to the earth. He 

 came to Mahuika, younger sister to Hine-nui-te-Po [goddess 

 of Hades] , and ere long she gave birth to five children, whose 

 names were Takonui, Takoroa, Manawa, Mapere, and Toiti. 

 Those children were the Fire Children." Here we see how 

 fire originally came from the sun. But this is digression. 

 Eeturn we to our numeration. 



Williams gives a word I have not before met with, 

 viakm = very numerous. Ex., " Tuauriuri ivhaioio, viakiu, 

 makiu." 



The modern method of adding units to 100 is by means 

 of the conjunction ma : kotahi rau ma whitu — one hundred 

 and seven. But in the old system of single counting this 

 phrase seems to have stood for 170. Kotahi rau ma rua = 

 one hundred and .twenty (literally, one hundred and two). 

 This method was used between hundreds, to express the odd 

 tens, and is the only item in Tuhoe numeration of pre- 

 European days that is decimal in its nature. 



An ancient way of adding units to hundreds was by using 

 the particle e — kotahi ran, e ivhitti, for 107. Kotahi ma ivhitu 

 was not only an exact term for 170, but also a vague expres- 

 aion employed for any number of persons between 100 and 

 200. Eau via ivJiitu was used in the same manner, applied 

 to a war-party, X)r company of travellers. It simply meant 

 between 100 and 200. In like manner the term hokowhitu 

 was used in the same vague way, when applied to a com- 

 pany of people. As my informant put it, " Kia eke raiua ki 

 te rau, katahi ka karangatia." It was only when the hundred 

 was attained that the term was altered. 



In that very singular work, " Te Ika a Maui," by the 

 Eev. E. Taylor, are some curious remarks anent Maori 

 counting. He says, "The old Maori way of counting was 

 evidently at first b^"^ the fingers up to ten, then a shake of 

 both hands was given, which signified one ten — this was 

 called a nga huru, or the entire ten fingers ; one hand being 

 shaken implied five, or the half ; ten shakes of the two 

 were 100; and so on. Thus kotahi was one finger; ka rua, 

 two. &c,; ka tekau, ten : then a shake of the hands was given 



