186 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



language is spoken by the dusky natives of Tanna, along with their 

 own. Should the latter conquer the islets in question, and compel 

 the inhabitants to coalesce with them, the result would probably be 

 a progeny of mixed race and language, like the Feejeeans. Again, 

 Quiros, who discovered the island of Taumako, north of the New 

 Hebrides, found it "inhabited by people of different kinds. Some 

 were of a light copper color, with long hair, some were mulattoes, 

 and some black, with short, frizzled hair."* It is evident, more- 

 over, that if on any group we might expect to find a people of mixed 

 lineage, it would be on that which lies midway between the two races 

 of pure blood. 



T i K o P i A. 



A similarity of names, together with some dialectical peculiarities, 

 has led to what may be considered at least a plausible conjecture with 

 regard to the origin of the population of this islet, removed so far 

 beyond the usual limits of the Polynesian race. An island in the 

 windward chain of the Feejee Group is called Tikombia, a name 

 which, according to the usual permutation of letters, is identical with 

 Tikopia. In the " Philology of the Voyage of the Astrolabe," vol. 

 ii. p. 161, we have a vocabulary of two hundred and fifty words of 

 the language spoken by this people. From this, it appears that their 

 dialect approaches nearer to the Tongan than to any other, but yet 

 differs from it in several points of some importance. The similarity 

 appears very clearly in the numerals, as 



TIKOPIAN. TONGAN. SAMOAN, ETC. 



tasa, taha, .... tasi, tahi, . . . one. 



siva, hiva, .... iva, nine. 



teau, teau, .... selau, one hundred. 



rta yeau, . . . ua geau, . . . hta lau, .... two hundred. 



toru yeau, . . . tolu yeau, . . . tdu yalau, . . . three hundred. 



The Tikopian differs from the Tongan in using the s where the 

 latter has h, as in the words for one and nine given above, and in 

 employing the definite article te, which has become obsolete in the 

 Tongan. 



But it is remarkable that in this brief vocabulary several words 



* Burney's History of Voyages, vol. ii. p. 290. 



