222 POLYNESIAN LANGUAGE. 
larly rich. They have not only the dual of the 
Orientals, but two first persons in the singular 
as well as plural: for example— 
O Taua—thou and I. 
O Maua—he and I. 
O Tatou—you and I. 
O Motou—we three, or several. 
By this the conjugation of the verbs is made 
more complicated than in other languages, but 
it again becomes easier from neither the person 
nor the tense changing the word itself, but all 
the variations being expressed by particular 
particles: for instance—motau, to fear; te ma- 
tau nei au, I fear; te matau ra oau, I feared ; 
i motau na oau, I have feared; e matau au, 
I shall fear. 
Since my readers will hardly wish to study 
the Tahaitian language very thoroughly, I 
here close my extracts from its grammar.— 
Whoever really desires to learn it must go to 
Tahaiti. I must, however, warn him to arm 
himself with patience; for though the Tahai- 
tians are very ready with their assistance, they 
have quite as bad a habit as ourselves of laugh- 
