Fox. — The Comparison of the Oceanic Languages. 469 



in New Guinea, is ai tete, whicli means " a wooden path " ; in 

 Mota it is pe lagolago, which means " the water-crosser " ; in 

 Maori, ara whata, perhaps " the raised path." 



In many Oceanic languages tae, excrement, has the secondary 

 meaning of "rust" ; but in Mota, wal, which means "to rise in 

 lumps," like fat in cooking or gum on trees, is the word used 

 for " rust," although tae has its usual meaning. 



The Wedau word for " nail " is tittii (Maori titi), the same 

 word meaning " elbow," " knee," or " pins in the outrigger of 

 a native canoe " — i.e., something which sticks out. The same 

 word in the New Hebrides means " spikey." The New Hebrides 

 word, however, for " nail " is turi, which means "that which goes 

 through an opening," and is also used for " needle," and (as a 

 verb) for a ship going through the narrow entrance into a har- 

 bour. But in Mota the word used for " nail " is pismarawa, 

 the finger of Marawa, a fairy, fairy-finger. 



" Black lava " in Maori is rangitoto, a word which means 

 literally " sky of blood," no doubt so named from the appearance 

 of some active volcano. In Mota they more justly call it vat 

 maeto, the black or dirty stone. " River " in Tongan is vaitafe, 

 the flowing water ; in Mota is it peilava, the large water ; in 

 Florida beti tina, the mother water. " Hurricane " is langvus in 

 Mota, which possibly means " the wind that strikes." In the 

 New Hebrides it is siritano, that which passes over the ground 

 like a razor. " Rainbow " in Mota is gasiosio, siosio meaning 

 " bent like a bow " ; in Maori, hahuhura, the red surface or 

 covering (of the sky) ; in Florida, langigahu, the rain of blood, 

 or the sky of blood. 



In comparing vocabularies this fondness for metaphor luust 

 be especially allowed for in Oceanic languages.* But the real 

 reason why the words so seldom seem to correspond is that they 

 occur at what Dr. Codrington calls " different levels of language." 

 For instance, the name of a common object may be quite different 

 in Maori and Mota, but the Maori word appears after all in Mota, 

 only at a different level — e.g.. in the name of a village — and the 

 Mota word at another level in Maori. For real comparison a 

 vocabulary of two or three thousand common words is not 

 sufficient — a thorough knowledge is needed of obscure and little- 

 used words, and also as wide a knowledge as possible of Oceanic 

 languages in general. And in this respect a great deal might be 

 done in Melanesia, where most of the languages are little known. 



The following are some interesting examples of the appearance 

 of words at different levels in two or more languages. Many 



* In Mota, safety- matches are called masis matamotmot, " stingy 

 matches," because they will only strike on their own box. 



