OCEANIC MIGRATIONS. ] 75 



The k sometimes becomes yg, as 



VITIAN. POLYNESIAN. 



u-agga vaka canoe. 



Vgftei kele, earth, clay. 



Vguggu, kuku, to grasp, hold. 



The r (or I) is sometimes changed to ndr (properly nr) ; as 



andra, ala, awake. 



ndravu, lefu, ashes. 



ndrau, lau leaf. 



Besides the words so altered, a far greater number of Polynesian 

 terms are found in the Vitian perfectly pure, and many of these are 

 such as signify the commonest objects; while they are strangely 

 intermixed with other words not found in any language of the Malay 

 family. Thus the word for father is Polynesian, and that for son is 

 not ; eye, ear, land, water, house, to sleep, to die, are all expressed by 

 terms of Polynesian origin ; while tooth, tongue, sea, fire, cloth, to eat, 

 to go, are from some other source. 



That the inhabitants of this group are a race of mixed origin, was 

 a conclusion to which we arrived while on the spot. It was not, 

 however, till some time after our return, while engaged in examining 

 and comparing the dialects and traditions of the Oceanic tribes, that 

 an opinion was formed as to the manner in which the intermixture 

 may have taken place. ' As this opinion is a novel one, and may, at 

 first sight, seem improbable, it will be proper to state, in their order, 

 the observations which led to its adoption. 



1. In drawing up the Comparative Grammar of the Polynesian 

 dialects, it was impossible not to be struck with the numerous 

 instances in which the Torigan departed from the rules which govern 

 the rest, to agree with the Vitian. Some of these have been noted 

 in the Grammar, ^ II, 56. A few of the most striking may be 

 mentioned here. The Polynesian dialects, in general, have several 

 suffixes, terminating mostly in ina and ia, which are joined to verbs 

 to form the passive. The Vitian has the same particles, but used for 

 a different purpose, viz. : to mark the transitive state of a verb. The 

 Tongan, in this, agrees for the most part with the latter. Again, the 

 regular Polynesian article is te (or in Samoan le, which is probably a 

 modern form). That the Tongan once had this article is apparent 

 from the fact that it is still found joined to some of the numerals, as 

 tekumi, ten (applied to fathoms), pi. yakumi, tens; teau, hundred, 



