248 PHILOLOGY. 



former or original value, having, of course, few men, canoes, or other large objects which 

 required to be counted. We can easily perceive, therefore, how, in process of time, the 

 primary meaning of the words might be wholly forgotten, and the secondary be used in 

 counting units as well as pairs. And if, after this usage had become fixed, a second 

 emigration took place from Tahiti to Nukuhiva or Hawaii, we can, in the same manner, 

 account for the second duplication. 



The word kau or tekau appears to be that which was originally used to signify ten 

 pair, as distinguished from fulu or yqfulu, the regular word for ten. This seems to be 

 its use in Tongan and New Zealand. In Mangarevan takau, and in Tahitian td'au, are 

 the ordinary terms for twenty, and form the basis of the higher enumeration, thirty 

 being twenty and ten, forty twice twenty, a hundred five times twenty, &c. In Hawaiian 

 ten is umi, the same as the Tongan kumi, which means ten fathoms ; twenty is iwa- 

 talua, a word compounded of iwa, nine, and lua, two, though why it should have this 

 meaning cannot well be understood ; thirty is tanatolu; forty is expressed both by tcCau 

 (for takau, a corruption of tekau), and by tanaha, being the word ha, four, with a prefix 

 of unknown origin. This word, tanaha, is, in this language, the basis of enumeration 

 (unless we apply that term to fauna, which is a collective word for four, in which case 

 tanaha would stand for ten tauna) ; fifty is tanaha me ta umi, forty and ten ; a hun- 

 dred is two forties and twenty ; two hundred is four forties ; and so on up to four hundred, 

 which is lau. 



At the Marquesas, both systems of numeration, the binary and the quaternary, are in 

 use, the former in the southern or Tahuatan cluster, and the latter in the northern or 

 Nukuhivan, but in both with some peculiarities. In counting large objects, which require 

 to be numbered singly, as men, canoes, pigs, &c., the Tahuatans begin with tahi, one, 

 and continue up to onohuu, ten, takau, twenty, au, two hundred, mano, two thousand, 

 tini, twenty thousand, tufa, two hundred thousand, pohi, two million. With small 

 objects, as fish and most kinds of fruit, they commence with tauna, a pair, and, omitting 

 onohuu, proceed to takau, ten pair, au, a hundred pair, &c., showing evidently the 

 manner in which the binary system was formed from the simple decimal. For bread- 

 fruit, they have a peculiar mode, commencing with pona, a word which properly signifies 

 a knot ; and as they are accustomed to tie up these fruit in knots of four, the word has 

 come to denote that number ; takau is then ten pona (i. e. forty), and au should properly 

 be one hundred pona, but for some unknown reason the word tauau has been intro- 

 duced to denote that number, and au is used to signify two tauau, \. e. eight hundred ; 

 mano is ten au, or eight thousand, &c. The Nukuhivans, in counting all articles but 

 breadfruit, begin with tahi, one (the word tauna, pair, not being used), and proceed to 

 onohuu, ten, tekau or tikau (for takau), twenty, tekau ma onohuu, thirty, after which a 

 new word is introduced for forty, which Mr. Crook writes taufa or tauha, and Mr. Alex- 

 ander and M. Gracia, toha. Fifty is tauha (or toha) ma onohuu; one hundred is ua 

 tauha ma tekau; two hundred is ima tauha; four hundred is au; four thousand, mano, 

 &c. For breadfruit they use the word pona, a knot of four, when tauha signifies ten 

 pona (thus returning to the decimal system), au is one hundred pona, mano one thou- 

 sand. Sometimes the Nukuhivans, to prevent mistakes, employ the word oa (large) after 

 the numeral, to show that it is used in the quaternary sense, and not according to the 

 Tahuatan system, as an oa, four hundred, mano oa, four thousand. 



The missionaries have introduced into these languages the ordinary decimal system. 



