POLYNESIAN GRAMMAR. 265 



In New Zealand, ka is a verbal prefix in very frequent use, which appears commonly 

 to take the place of kua, as, a ka kite ia, and he saw ; ka wakawakia koutou, ye shall 

 be judged ; ano ka toe a Jcsit, when Jesus was come ; ka mea atu aJiau kia koutou, I 

 say unto you. Ka is also prefixed to adjectives and to adverbs used independently, as, 

 ka pai, good, or, it is good ; ka hore, no, or, it is not. 



In the dialect of Paumotu, both ka and kua were used, as follows : e hoki koe ka 

 hiija, truly you are dead ; kaore mota kua hi~ga, not indeed dead. 



$ 51. The indefinite article se, he, or e, is frequently used to supply 

 the place of the substantive verb. 



Se mata, Fak., it is an eye ; he titfuga koe, art thou a priest 1 He pono, N. Z., it is 

 true ; lie rahi to ratou pouri, great is their sorrow. He aiaio, Haw., it is true ; he nui 

 te tihapai, great is the field. 



In Rarotongan, Tahitian, and sometimes in New Zealand, this article seems to be 

 lengthened to hei or ei (as te to tei, 11), and may be translated either to be, or for, or 

 as ; kia ho atu tona oraya hei utu, N. Z., to give his \\fefor a ransom, or as, or to be 

 a ransom ; so in Rarotongan ei utu, and in Tahitian ei hoo, with the same meaning. In 

 Nukuhivan, efiti au i te puu koku ei pakit, ana no te kaioi, I am going for the koku- 

 berries, as (or to be) an adornment for the dance. 



In Tongan, he is frequently used at the beginning of sentences, with the sense of for 

 (adv.) ; as, he oku aoya, for it is proper ; he ke te tonuhia, for thou shall be justified. It 

 is probable that the e which is frequently found in Rarotongan and Tahitian at the begin- 

 ning of phrases is not always a sign of tense, but rather the article used in one of the 

 above senses. 



PARTICLES OF TENSE. 



52. The particles of tense always precede the verb ; they are all 

 used with some degree of indefiniteness, and are frequently inter- 

 changed for one another. The use of a particular particle appears to 

 depend rather upon its position in the sentence than upon its intrinsic 

 meaning. 



In Samoan, e is used as a sign of present and future time ; e vaai oia, he sees ; e tola 

 leaya mai tayata ia te outou, men shall revile you ; afai ta-tou afai, if we shall say. 

 Te is used with a similar meaning, but only after a pronoun, as, ou te fai atu, I say ; 

 afai matou tefai, if we shall say. A (according to Mr. Heath) is sometimes used as a 

 sign of the immediate future ; but, in general, we can only distinguish by the context if 

 the sentence is intended to be in the present or in the future. Na is the usual sign of the 

 past tense, as, na'u fai, I said ; na ia taofi, he had seized ; na vaavaai i matou, we 

 have seen ; na outou 6, ye went. At the beginning of a clause or sentence, however, 

 this is usually preceded by o (probably the conjunction and), as, ona sau ai lea o Jesu, 

 Jesus came ; in the middle of a sentence, preceded by a noun, it serves, in a manner, for 

 a relative pronoun [v. 44], as, o le fua lea na talia, that was the seed [which] was 

 received ; in this case, when na is followed by te, it is to be translated " by whom," or 

 " by which;" as, nao e tar/ata lava, na te talia te finayalo, but the men only by whom 



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