284 REPOKT— 1891. 



the time of separation of the several branches ; so that names 

 which are known in, say, Tahiti in one form have at first sight 

 quite a different appearance when written or sounded in the 

 dialects of other places. For instance, it is not apparent to 

 the casual observer that the name Tahiti should be written 

 and pronounced Kahiki in the Sandwich Islands ; nor that 

 Barotoa, of Tahiti, should be written and pronounced iJaroion^/a 

 by the Hervey-Islanders and Maoris of New Zealand ; nor that 

 Karika, of Rarotonga, should be written by the Samoans as 

 Sail a. This is, however, a difficulty that is easily overcome by 

 knowing the peculibirities of each dialect. A greater difficulty 

 is found in recognising native names written down by Euro- 

 peans from what appeared to them to be the sound of the words, 

 and before the Polynesian language had been fixed in their 

 orthography by tbe excellent system which now prevails. In 

 these dialectic differences, however, we may see in names pre- 

 served in different forms a guarantee of their authenticity. 



If such differences are in accordance with the genius of the 

 dialect in which they are preserved, they offer a convincing 

 proof against the statement more than once made to the 

 effect that the Polynesian knowledge of countries other than 

 their own has been gained from the Europeans, or from 

 natives who have visited other islands in whalers.' To illus- 

 trate this : The Rarotongans would not refer to Upolu, one of 

 the Samoa Islands, by the name of Kuponi, as they do, if they 

 had learned the name in modern times ; they would find no 

 difficulty in pronouncing the name as used in Samoa, though 

 the Samoans might find a difficulty in pronouncing the word 

 as in Rarotonga, the former people having lost the "k" in their 

 dialect. Numerous other examples of the same nature might 

 be quoted, some of which will appear in the list of names 

 given further on. 



In identifying the names of places, some attention has to 

 be paid to the peculiar consonantal and vowel changes which 

 take place in the Polynesian languages, the laws of which are 

 little known at present, but the study of which will well 

 repay the time devoted to it. The following will illustrate my 

 meaning. Few would recognise at first glance as words abso- 

 lutely identical the following : Marino and aio, meaning calm ; 

 kareivareiva, kaeaea (in Maori), or aeaea (in Tahitian), meaning 

 a sparrow-hawk — words in which the consonants have disap- 

 peared by a process of decay, leaving the vowels and the mean- 

 ing quite intact. 



To any one in these days looking at the class of vessel now 

 employed by the Polynesians all over the Pacific, and con- 

 sidering the distances that separate the various groups, it 

 would appear impossible that the people could ever have made 



