242 PHILOLOGY. 



would that others should do unto you," &c., the Samoan has "o mea uma," the New 

 Zealand, " ko ya mea katoa," the Tahitian, " te niau mea, too," the Rarotongan, " te au 

 mea katoa," and the Hawaiian, " o na mea a pan." Here the Rarotongan coincides 

 with the Tahitian, but in most cases it agrees with the other dialects. In the sentence 

 " whosoever shall be angry," the Samoan has " o le tayata," the New Zealand and the 

 Rarotongan, " ko te tayata," the Hawaiian, " o ta mea" and the Tahitian, simply, " te 

 taata." 



This particle is also prefixed to adverbs used substantively, or without a verb ; as in 

 the sentence " within they are ravening wolves," (i. e. as to the inside) in the Samoan it 

 is o totonu, in New Zealand, ko roto, in Tahitian, o roto. So ko mua, Rar., before ; ko 

 reira, N. Z., then; ko ruya tenei, ko avaiki tena, Mang., this is above (or the upper), that 

 is below. 



[It is curious that in the Australian dialect spoken by the tribe on Hunter's River, 

 (which belongs to an entirely different class of languages from the Polynesian) this same 

 particle ko is used for precisely the same purpose, namely, that of marking the active, 

 or what Mr. Threlkeld terms the agent form of the noun, which is generally the nomina- 

 tive, though in some cases it rather answers to the ablative. The particle, however, 

 differs from that in the Polynesian, in being postfixed to the noun. Kore is man, and 

 koreko is the same word when used as the nominative to a verb, or in answer to the 

 question " who did it ?" It thus corresponds precisely to ko te tapata. This fact is 

 mentioned merely as an interesting coincidence, and not as indicating any connexion 

 between the two languages.] 



(j 18. The genitive is formed by the prepositions a and o, both of 

 which signify of. There is a slight shade of difference between these 

 two prepositions, which it is difficult for a foreigner to comprehend, 

 though the natives are careful to observe it, and never substitute one 

 for the other. 



The proper meaning of a seems to be of, in the sense of belonging to, while o is more 

 general and indefinite. The chief difficulty lies in determining what is to be regarded as 

 properly in the possession of a person. The Polynesians seem to consider that the child 

 belongs to the father, but not the father to the child ; that the husband and wife are each 

 other's property, but brothers and sisters not. A man's body or his limbs are not consi- 

 dered as in his possession, perhaps because they rather form a part of him. So the 

 house in which a man lives, and the clothing which he wears, are not spoken of as his 

 property (but rather as things which he uses), but his food is. So a man's speech is 

 considered as belonging to him, but not his life. The above distinctions pervade all the 

 dialects, with some exceptions only in respect to words expressing relationship. In other 

 classes of words the usage varies. The o, however, is the most common particle. As 

 the a is properly used in the sense of belonging to, it can only come before a noun signi- 

 fying a living being ; o is used before all other nouns ; thus, " the canoe of (or belong- 

 ing to) Pihaya," will be, te vaka a Pihaya; but " the canoe of the ship," or "the ship's 

 boat," te vaka o tefolau. 



19. A peculiar form of the genitive is made by reversing the 



