2 gg PHILOLOGY. 



the word mahuta, signifying to fly."* This figurative style of speaking is not the same 

 with the ceremonial dialect of Samoa and Tonga, though both may have originated in 

 the same feeling. 



It is, however, a point of interest to inquire whether there are any traces in the dialects 

 of Eastern Polynesia, from which we may infer that the language of deference was in 

 use previous to the departure of the Tahitian and other colonists. A careful examination 

 shows the existence of many indications of this sort. The word fqforja, in Samoan, 

 signifies the face of a chief; in Tahitian, it would become kohoa, and this is the word by 

 which the term image has been rendered in Matt. xxii. 20 : novai te hohoa, &c., " whose 

 image and superscription is this?" Lfa is the Samoan word of ceremony for to dream, 

 a vision; in Hawaiian, it means to think, ponder. Soisoi is to laugh; in Hawaiian, 

 hoihoi means pleased, gratified, joyful. Soya, signifying the servant of a chief, is per- 

 haps the origin of the word huya, which in New Zealand means the lower class of people, 

 and uya, which, in Rarotongan, signifies a tenant. Taumafa, in Samoan, is to eat, 

 said of a common chief; in Tongan, it is applied to Tuitonga, to whom divine honors 

 are rendered ; in Hawaiian, taumaha is a sacrifice (i. e. the food or eating of a god.) 

 From these examples it appears that though the language of ceremony is not used as such 

 in the dialects derived from the Samoan (a fact which may be readily accounted for 

 from the great equality which would prevail among the colonists and their immediate 

 descendants), yet several of the words have been retained with the same or similar 

 meanings in the ordinary language. 



CEREMONIAL NEOLOGY. 



81. The Tahitians, besides the metaphorical expressions already 

 noticed, have another and a more singular mode of displaying their 

 reverence towards their king, by a custom which they term te pi. 

 They cease to employ, in the common language, those words which 

 form a part or the whole of the sovereign's name, or that of one of his 

 near relatives, and invent new terms to supply their place. As all 

 names in Polynesian are significant, and as a chief usually has 

 several, it will be seen that this custom must produce a considerable 

 change in the language. This change, however, is only temporary, 

 as at the death of the king or chief the new word is dropped, and the 

 original term resumed. Vancouver observes (Voyage, vol. i. p. 135) 

 that at the accession of Otu, which took place between the visit of 

 Cook and his own, no less than forty or fifty of the most common 

 words, which occur in conversation, had been entirely changed. It 

 is perhaps to be regretted that the missionaries, in their translations, 

 have employed many of the new terms, which would otherwise have 

 had only a temporary currency, and thus made them permanent. 



* Ellis's Polynesian Researches, vol. iii. p. 37. 



