HUMAN SENSATION AND PERCEPTION. 89 



hum, ten, originally signified hairs ; rima,five, was at 

 first used for hand; riri, anger, literally means, lie 

 shouts. Uku in the Marquesas Isles means, to lower 

 the head, and is now used for to enter a house. Ruku, 

 which had the same original meaning in New Zealand, 

 now expresses the act of diving. The Polynesian word 

 toro at first indicated anything in the position of a 

 hand with extended fingers, whence comes the Tahitian 

 term for an ox, puaatoro, stretching pig, in allusion to 

 the way in which an ox carries his head. Too (Mar- 

 quesas), to put forward the hand, is now used for to 

 take. Tongo (Marquesas), to grope with extended 

 arms, leads to potongo tongo, darkness. In New Zea- 

 land, wairua, in Tahiti varua, signifies soul or spirit, 

 from vai, to remain in a recumbent position, and rua, 

 two ; that is, to be in two places, since they believed 

 that in sickness or in dreams the soul left the body.* 

 Throughout Polynesia moe also signifies a recumbent 

 position or to sleep, and in Tahiti moe pipiti signifies 

 a double sleep or dream, from moe, to sleep, smdpiti, 

 two. In New Zealand, moenaku means, to try to grasp 

 something during sleep ; from naku, to take in the 

 fingers. 



We can understand something of the mysterious 

 exercise of human intelligence in its earliest develop- 

 ment from this habit of symbolizing and presenting i n 

 an outward form an abstract conception, thus giving 

 a concrete meaning and material expression to the 



* See Gaussin's Langue Polyn&ienne. 



