THE NAME OF “UNGA” FOR “SLAVE” AT RAROTONGA. 799 
SECOND STANZA. 
E utu matangi e, Oh, for a steady breeze, 
E mavyake te kau, Directed by the gods ! 
Kua akaipoi ra i te vaine Great is the misery of her 
Aru marama ki te tane ! Who counts her widowed moons ! 
Rai no te ariki, May my chief* be famous ! 
E ngarue te au no te ariki, May his rule be prosperous ! 
Ngarueteau. KE tu Aye ; may he prosper. 
Ki te tai vera oki o Kaukura, Stand thou on ocean’s burning strand, 
I te upoko o Inutoto, Thou lord of Inutoto,— 
Te vaine pare ariki, Of her who once was crowned, 
Te naku nei ki te tane! But is now sorrowing for her husband, 
No. 11—CONCERNING THE NAME “UNGA” FOR 
“SLAVE” AT RAROTONGA, SOUTH PACIFIC. 
By the late Rev. W. Wyart Giz, B.A., LL.D. 
(Read Monday, January 10, 1898.) 
THE indigenous arrowroot plant [ Tacca pinnatifeda] of the south 
Pacific has one or two large tuberous roots, surrounded by many 
smaller ones. To the highly-imaginative nativet mind the large 
tubers symbolize the chief or chiefs ; the smaller ones the landed 
proprietors owning allegiance to, and by blood related to, the 
chief or chiefs. But besides these, there are a great number of 
tiny tubers, called “unga,” representing the serfs, or “little 
people ” “tangata rikiriki,” as they are often called—z.e., people 
of no account whatever ! 
The correctness of this interpretation is evidenced by the Raro- 
tongan phrase for ‘‘dust” ‘ ungaunga—one,” literally “ grains 
of earth.” Again, in the Rarotongan Bible [Matt. xv, 29, and 
Mark vu. 28] for “crumbs” we have “ungaunga kai,” literally 
“‘orains of food.” In these phrases the plural is made by repeat- 
ing the noun “unga”—“ grain.” The underlying idea is, that 
the slave “ unga” is but an insignificant grain or unit that in the 
nature of things can never rise to anything great. And such is 
*Her husband Paroro was a renowned chief. The crown referred to in this stanza wag 
made of parrakeet feathers. Paroro is imagined to be on a visit to Mitiaro or Mauke, 
lying to the east of Atiu. Strangely enough, there is no reference to the surroundings of 
the hermit. It is impossible to fix a date for this song ; in my own judgment it was, as the 
natives of Atiu assert, composed many generations ago. 
7 This explanation was many years ago authoritatively given me by Maretu, the clever 
and much-respected pastor of Ngatangiia, Rarotonga. He observed that the simile equally 
applies to the ‘‘Teve” plant, Amorphophallus campanulatus, of the islands. The ‘‘chats’, 
“*karoi,” of the Teve-plant represent the serfs, ‘‘unga.” 
