388 PHILOLOGY. 



Ma is a particle peculiar to the Mbua dialect ; it does not occur in either of the gram- 

 mars, or in the vocabulary, and the interpreter was ignorant of its meaning. As the line 

 has a syllable too much for the metre, it is possible that this particle may have been an 

 addition made to the song by the natives of Mbua, from whom we received it. It is 

 evident that these compositions, in passing from one district to another, must be liable to 

 be corrupted by the changes of dialect. 



No, similar in meaning and use to tiko, toka, and koto. 



Sinu, a tree bearing beautiful white flowers, which grow in clusters. 



Me ra Suru, &c., "that they may string garlands the women." The sentence is 

 probably thrown into this form for the sake of the rhyme. 



Alewa is frequently used for lewa, in the Rewa dialect ; like most nouns beginning 

 with a, it is preceded by an i, which is joined to whatever word comes before it, in this 

 case, to the article na. Throughout these songs a and na are used indifferently both in 

 the nominative and the accusative ; probably the choice is regulated by the harmony of 

 the verse. 



Lemba, a tree bearing a yellow flower ; here the word is used for the flower alone, 

 and afterwards, by metonymy, for the whole garland. 



Mbola is to divide ; mbola-rua, divided in two. Two garlands appear to have been 

 braided on one string, and when finished, they are divided ; ra mbola-rua should there- 

 fore be rendered " they being severed in two." 



Tombe is an ornament for the head or neck ; with na it becomes a transitive verb, and 

 signifies to make of any thing an ornament. 



Kere, to beg ; she supposes that the queen will be struck with the beauty of her gar- 

 land, and ask for it. 



Loya, the dais or elevated place for sleeping, which occupies one end of the house; the 

 epithet leka is evidently introduced for the rhyme; she represents herself as being annoyed 

 that the queen should beg for the garland, and as throwing it aside in displeasure. 



Ru akava, &c., aka signifies both to take and to make ; at Ovolau, the meaning 

 of the line would have been expressed by " kei ran aka na lemba kau Sakava." In 

 kau (contracted for ka ait) the ka may be either the conjunction and, or, what is more 

 probable, the preterite particle supplying the place of a relative pronoun. 



Ne, noise, bustle ; the meaning seems to be, let us dress ourselves in all our finery, 

 to make a great stir or " sensation," as we enter the circle of dances. 



Thungiawa: every house in Viti has its name, and the occupant frequently receives an 

 appellation from it, as the lairds of Scotland are called by the names of their estates. 

 The house of David Whippy, our interpreter, was called Wagga-vanua, i. e., " Ship;" 

 and he was frequently spoken of as Ko-mai-na-Wa-gga-vanua, "He of the Ship." 



Tina-i-Sayi-lamba, mother of Thangi-lamba ; a woman is frequently known, in these 

 islands, by the appellation of the mother of her eldest son, and a man by that of father 

 of his eldest daughter. We are reminded of the Arabic Abu-Bekr, Father of Bekr, &c. 



Ka'o for kato, basket ; vo'ua for votua, which is a Mbua word, having probably the 

 same meaning as yau in Rewa, i. e., property, goods. Here it refers to the articles given 

 in return for teaching the song and dance. The omission of the t is a peculiarity of the 

 dialect of Mathuata, and as Tinai-apilamba is represented as speaking, she was probably 

 from that place, and had come to Rewa to dispose of a new composition. 



Sa mai tola, " is here empty." 



