ANEITYUM, NEW HEBRIDES. 713 



have been the special " Sun " god, as imphed by his other 

 name " Nagesegaaretha." " Moitikitiki " was the great rain 

 god. All the elements in the heavens, the foods on earth, 

 and the ills the human body is heir to had their special 

 Natmases, and these spirits were represented by rude uncarved 

 sacred stones, the more important ones only being in the pos- 

 session of the specially sacred men. These sjjirits were said 

 to have the power of both helping and injuring men, also of 

 keeping back or bringing disease ; to them was also ascribed 

 the power of giving success in war ; failure or misfortune 

 implied the displeasure of the Natmas towards the individual 

 or tribe by a non-compliance with some rule, or a stingy 

 contribution of food to some feast ; hence the poor natives 

 were living in fear and bondage all their days. 



Philology. 



Numerals. 



Ethi one. 



Ero two. 



Eseij three. 



Emanowan four. 



Ekman five. 



The fifth number is turned into " nekman," which means a 

 whole hand, then the sixth number is expressed by the phrase 

 a hand and one = seven, a hand and two = eight, and so on to 

 two hands and a toe = eleven, up to two hands, a foot and a 

 toe = sixteen, when twenty is reached a greater number is 

 expressed by an indefinite phrase as " many," " a great many," 

 "a very great many." Now-a-days the English numerals 

 are known and used by the Aneityamese. 



Nouns, with exceedingly few exceptions, begin with N. or 

 In ; the plural of these nouns are usually expressed by dropping 

 the n or in. 



The personal pronouns have four numbers, namely, singular, 

 dual, trial, plural. The first person of the dual, the trial, and 

 the plural has also an inclusive and exclusive form. The 

 masculine and feminine gender of the personal pronouns are 

 the same. 



# Nominative, Singular. 



1 Ainyak I. 



2 Aiek Thou or you; 



3 Aien He or she. 



