474 Transactions. 



The Raga siolo, bend, is found in the Mota word siolo, which 

 means " to crawl Hke a snake " : the prominent idea is no doubt 

 the folds into which a snake throws its body, as in the Mota 

 gasiosio, a rainbow. 



The Raga lago, go, is found in several Mota words : tajj- 

 lagolago, now used of a cart from the fact of its going on wheels, 

 formerly " a wheel '" (children made a hoop of sago fronds and set 

 it rolling, crying " Tap* lagolago,''^ "It runs of its own accord") ; 

 'pelagolago, a bridge ; lago, a rare word meaning " to take long 

 strides " ; lagota, a giant. On the other hand, the Mota 7nvle, 

 to go, occurs in Raga with the sense of the Mota kel, to go and 

 return back again ; and in Mota this meaning of mide is still 

 found : mule, to be refreshed ;f mideag, the trees budding again 

 in spring ; lul mule, the wind blowing softly after a storm ; and 

 perhaps in Ha mule, to shoot a member of one's own party in 

 a fight. Probably it is a form of the Maori word tnuremure, to 

 return to a thing frequently. 



To all such sources of real or apparent diversity must be 

 added phonetic changes, which disguise words more or less. 

 The change between Maori and Tongan of I and r is quite regular. 

 A dialect of Oba, New Hebrides, is said to be exactly Hke a neigh- 

 bouring dialect except that h always takes the place of s. 



We must remember, too, that the letters in these languages 

 do not represent exactly English sounds. The Melanesian g, 

 for example, is not the English g, and has been compared with 

 the Hebrew ain. When the language was first written, it was 

 sometimes written as k, sometimes as r, sometimes altogether 

 omitted ; thus takai was written for tagai, raru for garu, ate 

 for gate. This fact explains how the Raga daga, blood, can be 

 the equivalent of the Mota nara {d and n being a common in- 

 terchange) ; the Mota gaso, a rafter, of the Maori kaho ; and 

 the Mota magarosa, pitiful, of the Maori aroha — the ma of maga- 

 rosa being the conditional prefix. The Malagasy o is sounded 

 u (oo), so that the Malagasy word toto, to pound, is clearly the 

 same with the Mota tut, to thump with the fist. Mr. Tregeat 

 says of the Malagasy word vorodolo that it is an example of how 

 letter-changes may cloak a real affinity — the Malagasy voro, 

 bird, being the Maori huru, and dolo the Maori ruru. The Mota 

 word langvus, hurricane, is probably the Maori rangi, sky, and 

 puhi, blow. The Malagasy word havitra, hook, is found in the 

 Loyalty Islands in the much-altered form ge.% 



The conclusion one would draw from these various facts is 



* As in tapsoga, a board falling out of its o\vn accord. 



f 3Iate mule, to faint — i.e., to die and come to. 



J S. H. Ray, " The Common Origin of the Oceanic Languages." 



