POLYNESIAN GRAMMAR. 



285 



In Rarotongan, yoie and jwto, as, rave-yoie, easy to do, rave-yata, hard to do ; 

 akad-yoie, easy to enter, akao-igata, hard to enter. 



In Mangarevan, the vocabulary gives parua, reprimanded, corrected, probably the 

 passive of paru, to correct, and paru-yata, incorrigible, i. e. difficult to correct. 



In the other dialects, this form seems not to exist. In Tahitian, difficult is taiata, 

 the latter part of which may possibly be connected with -gata. 



79. In compound words the Polynesian differs from the English 

 in placing the governed or qualifying word last : instead of sea-coast, 

 it has coast-sea; instead of kind-hearted, heart-kind; instead of swift- 

 sailing, sail-swift, &c. 



Samoan : lau-ulu, hair (lit. foliage of the head) ; sele-ulu, scissors (hair-cutters, or 

 rather, head-cutters). Tua-sivi, the back-bone, means, therefore, not as in English, the 

 bone of the back, but the " back of the bones" i. e. of the skeleton. 



Tongan : Manava-tii, fear (little-breath) ; fale-buaka, pig-sty ; tufuya-ta-maka, a 

 mason (lit. artisan cutting stone, or a stone-cutter). 



New Zealand : mata-rayi, the horizon (edge of the heavens) ; tu-kau, naked (lit. 

 standing merely, or without addition). 



Rarotongan : -gutu-pa, door (lit. mouth of the wall) ; maya-nui, many (great bit). 



Mangarevan : mate-kai, hunger (wanting food) ; rima-rau, united labor of many 

 people in a work (lit. two hundred hands). 



Tahitian : taJui-tai, sea-coast ; papai-parau, scribes (writers of words). 



Hawaiian : hatu-aina, landholder (lit. lord of land landlord) ; loto-maitai, kind (lit. 

 good-heart, or good disposition ; loto is not found separately with this sense in the Ha- 

 waiian, but it exists in the Samoan) ; tani-uhu, to lament, from tani, to cry, and uhu, 

 grief; ai-tanata, man-eater. 



Nukuhivan : vai-tafe, river (running water) ; papua-moa, hen-coop (enclosure of 

 fowls). 



Most of the proper names of the islanders are compound words, frequently with whim- 

 sical significations, as, Tai-ma-le-layi (sea-and-sky) a chief at the Navigator islands ; 

 Pomare (night of coughing) formerly king of Tahiti ; Tau-i-te-ao-idi (suspended in the 

 blue heavens), name of the present king of the Sandwich islands. The grandfather of 

 this king had the name of Ta-lani-tupu-a-pai-ta-lani-nui, which seems to mean, " the 

 sky increasing, and striking the great heaven." 



LANGUAGE OF CEREMONY. 



$ 80. The Samoans are a remarkably ceremonious people, and very 

 attentive to the forms of politeness. This peculiarity appears in their 

 language, which abounds in terms of salutation and compliment. 

 Besides alofa, or talofa, (love,) which is common to most of the Poly- 

 nesian islands, they have particular expressions according to the time 



of day : 



Ua usu mai, is the morning salutation ; 

 Ua laina mai, at noon ; 

 Ua alala mai, in the evening. 

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