686 PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION G. 



is very frequpntly nbbreviated into " ])n ; " "elimf" is the 

 pronoun a father uses to his child ; it is used also in abuse. 

 The third person sing, also has two pronouns used in the same 

 way — " nubon " and " ich." The second and third per. pi. 

 are " buhnije," " ziehnie," and '■ buice," " ziicli " respectively. 



In the Lifn language we have five pronouns in the 2nd 

 and 3rd per. sing, respectively ; 2nd pei'. " enetilai," is the 

 most respectful, " hnam " the most contemptuous. 3rd per. 

 " nyide " (sometimes " auga " is prefixed, which adds to its 

 dignity) is the highest; " ej " (" j " is pronounced as "th" in 

 thine) is the lowest; indeed, " ej " is tlie only neuter pronoun 

 in the language in any person ; a plural article added to 

 " ej " makes it plural thus — " itVj," things. 



I will take your questions seriatim. 



1. Sedongo = 5, I know of no derivation for this word. 

 I consider it five, as rewe is the word for tivo ; but, dongo 

 is famine, and se the indefinite article ; according to that se 

 dongo would mean a famine ; there can, however, be no con- 

 nection between five and a famine. 



2. Sarengome == 20 = one man ; perhaps the translation 

 should be more properly — one jierson, ngome is the word for 

 person (the generic word for man), male or female ; but 

 cahman, male or man ; hmenewe, female or woman. 



3. Rue tubenin ^ 10 ; tube = bunch, nim = finger ; tube 

 is, I think, derived from the verb tehon, to tie in bundles; 

 nin is never used alone to indicate finger, but the diminutive 

 particle " wa " is always added, thus loanin, which may be a 

 finger, the hand, or the whole arm from the shoulder to the 

 fingers ; then ara is added to indicate the palm of the hand 

 and the sole of the foot : — ctranin, palm of hand ; arada, sole 

 of foot. 



4. Is n or in ever used as a suffix ])ronoun as in the New 

 Hebrides .^ In the Mare and Lifu, no ; but in the Uvean 

 language the n is the third per. sing, suffix to nouns. 



5. In ethewe and rewe, is the ew = the sound of English 

 rue or Yeio ? No. The combination eice does not occur in 

 a large number of words, but itisalwaysthe terminal of a word ; 

 it cannot be well represented by any English letters. All 

 syllables (except the ultimate) in the Mare and Lifu languages 

 are open, that is, end in a vowel ; the natives cannot pi-onounce 

 two consonants one after the other, without a vowel between ; 

 in many words the ultimate ends in a consonant, where the 

 sentence is finished ; hence, ethewe is divided thus, e-the-we, 

 filso hme-ne-we, woman in ethewe the middle e will go with 



