POLYNESIAN GRAMMAR. 289 



Some further explanations with regard to the extent and character of these alterations 

 will not be out of place. 



1. It is not necessary that all the simple words which go to make up a compound 

 name should be changed. The alteration of one is esteemed sufficient. Thus in 

 Po-mare, signifying " the night of coughing," only the first word, po, has been dropped, 

 mi being used in its place. So in Ai-mata (eye-eater), the name of the present queen, 

 the ai has been altered to amu, and the mala retained. In Te-arii-na-vaha-roa (the 

 chief with the large mouth) roa alone has been changed to maoro. 



2. But this alteration affects not only the words themselves, but syllables of similar 

 sound in other words. Thus the name of one of the kings being Tu, not only was this 

 word, which means to stand, changed to tia, but in the word fetu, star, the last syllable, 

 though having no connexion, except in sound, with the word tu, underwent the same 

 alteration star being now fetia; tui, to strike, became tiai; and tupapau, a corpse, 

 tiapapau. So ha, four, having been changed to maha, the word aha, split, has been 

 altered to amaJui, and murihd, the name of a month, to muriaha. When the word ai 

 was changed to amu, maraai, the name of a certain wind (in Rarotongan, maragai) 

 became mara-amu. 



3. The mode of alteration, or the manner of forming new terms, seems to be arbitrary. 

 In many cases, the substitutes are made by changing or dropping some letter or 

 letters of the original word, as hopoi for hapai, to carry in the arms ; ene for hono, to 

 mend ; au for tau, fit ; hio for tio, to look ; ea for ara, path ; vau for varu, eight ; vea 

 for vera, hot, &c. In other cases, the word substituted is one which had before a meaning 

 nearly related to that of the term disused, as tia, straight, upright, is used instead of tu, 

 to stand ; pae, part, division, instead ofrima, five ; piti, together, has replaced rua, two, 

 &c. In some cases, the meaning or origin of the new word is unknown, and it may be 

 a mere invention, as qfai for ohatu, stone ; pape, for vai, water; poke for mate, dead, 

 &c. Some have been adopted from the neighboring Paumotuan, as rui, night, from 

 ntki, dark ; fene, six, from hene; avae, moon, from kawake. 



It is evident that but for the rule by which the old terms are revived on the death of 

 the person in whose name they entered, the language might, in a few centuries, have 

 been completely changed, not indeed in its grammar, but in its vocabulary. Of the 

 ten simple numerals, five are different from what they were in the time of Cook, as : 



ORIGINAL FORM. PRESENT FORM. 



tahi tahi one 



rua piti two 



toru toru three 



ha maha four 



rima pae, five 



ono fene six 



hitu hitu seven 



varu vau eight 



iva iva nine 



ahuru ahtiru ten 



73 



