664 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G, 



4. Uhngen. — I am not in a position to supplement g'reatly 

 what 1 said on this head. The word, so far as I know, may 

 be said to have been taken entirely out of" common use, but 

 it has a tendency to come back in a roundabout Avay. The 

 word idingen (" kumes^n " in Kw. dialect ; '■' uihngvn," icest 

 dial.; " SLipwer* " or " supe," .Efati to south end of Epi ; 

 " Nohbu," (0 Erromanga ; " Tatapua," 'part of Emai, Aniwa, 

 and Futuna ; " Nethuino-," Aneilyum) is no longer a simple 

 adjective or verb, and in all its common uses it has now 

 behind it the superhuman idea. Natives will say of certain 

 things, Uhngen ticinol, " Uhngen made it." But doubtless 

 the word had first of all a common use, as much as our God 

 had, which made it suitable as a description for a thing that 

 is superhuman. This is shown now in that the word with its 

 superhuman meaning is taken to express a common thing. 

 Thus a mole or wine-mark on the body is uhngen (noun). 

 A stain on the floor that cannot be washed out is uhngen 

 (noun). A window fixed so as not to open is said to be kol 

 uhngen — ." one made it uhngen." There is also an undefined 

 idea that a person after death will be made uhngen* (I 

 cannot say an uhngen, because such is the native mind that a 

 thing may be one of a lot and still the whole lot). Some- 

 times uhngen is apphed to complicated mechanism, as a 

 watch or gun-lock. I used to think that this was because of 

 its being something superhuman, but it may signify nothing 

 more than that such a thing is hard to undo. These uses 

 point to fixity, eternity (past and future) and perhaps super- 

 humanity, as root meaning. I do not hold that " Tatapua " 

 is the same word as uhngen, yet it may be. Natives, I 

 ihink, take them to mean the same thing. Nor do I hold 

 that " Nohbu " is the same. I have doubts as to its meaning 

 being the same. " Nethuing " is given by the early mis- 

 sionaries on Aneityum a meaning different to the a1)0ve, but 

 the natives identify the two. I have no doubt about 

 " Supive " both as to etymology and meaning. 



5. A Correction for p. 17 of MS. — Instead of "Nuruker 

 he is told whose it is, and is instructed " &:c., read " he is not 

 told whose it is, but instructions" &:e. 



6. A Native Song in Kioamera Dialect. — It was first 

 collected by Mrs. Watt and then sung over to me. The 

 words in y. 1 are, so far as the Tannese know, without 



*This is the meaning Dr. Gunn puts on Tatapua, 



