OCEANIC MIGRATIONS. 



sibly Itua (or Ituwa) for Utuvaa. These changes are of a kind 

 unusual in the Polynesian dialects, and are an evidence of what 

 many circumstances would lead us to suspect, that the first settlers 

 of Hawaii were people of low rank, and imperfectly versed in those 

 branches of knowledge which are usually left, in these islands, to the 

 chiefs and priests. 



WINDS. 



We have already had occasion to speak of the term tonga as ap- 

 plied in the Samoan, New Zealand,* Rarotongan, Tahitian (toa), and 

 Hawaiian (tona}, to the south wind. It must, of course, have been 

 derived from the first-named group, which is the only one that lies to 

 the north of the island (Tonga) from which the wind is named. 



Another word which requires to be noticed is tokelau, (in Samoan, 

 to'elau, in Rarotongan, tokerau, in Tahitian, to'erau, in Nukuhivan, 

 tohoau, and in Hawaiian to'olau.) In Samoan and Tongan this word 

 signifies the east or southeast trades ; in Tahitian and Rarotongan it 

 is the northwest monsoon ; in Nukuhivan it is the north wind ; and 

 in Hawaiian it is the name given to the north or northeast side of an 

 island, opposite to tona, or the southwest. The secret of these changes 

 of meaning is probably to be found in the concluding syllable lau, 

 which is presumed to be the same with the Malaisian word laut, 

 meaning sea. Throughout the countries occupied by this race, we 

 find this term applied to the wind, or the point of the compass, in the 

 direction of the open sea. Thus in Malay, laut, by itself, is used for 

 the northwest wind,f that being the wind which, at the peninsula of 

 Malacca, blows from the open sea, or across the Bay of Bengal. 

 Timor in Malay, signifies east, and timor-laut, northeast, the wind 

 from this direction coming down the China Sea. In the island of 

 Celebes it is curious that the Bugis, who live on the east side, have 

 for the word east alao, and the Macassars, who inhabit the west coast, 

 have a similar word, ilao, for the west 4 In the Philippines, balas 

 signifies northeast wind, and balac-laot, northwest,^ that being the 

 wind from the North Pacific. In all these cases, the proper transla- 



* In Professor Lee's Vocabulary, tonga is given, by mistake, as the word for east- 

 wind. 



f Rienzi, Oceanic, vol. i. p. 93. 



| Crawfurd's Indian Archipelago, vol. ii. p. 127. 



Humboldt on the Kawi, vol. ii. p. 250. 



