252 GENERAL 5 ACCOUNT OF NEW ZEALAND CHAP, x 



Thus much for the manners and customs of these people, 

 as far as they have come to my knowledge in the few 

 opportunities I had of seeing them. They differ in many 

 things, but agree in more, with those of the inhabitants of 

 the South Sea Islands. Their language I shall next give a 

 short specimen of; it is almost precisely the same, at least 

 fundamentally. It is true that they have generally added 

 several letters to the words as used by the inhabitants of 

 Otahite, etc., but the original plainly appears in the com- 

 position. The language of the northern and southern parts 

 differs chiefly in this, that the one has added more letters than 

 the other ; the original words are, however, not less visible 

 to the most superficial observer. I shall give a short table 

 of each compared with the Otahite, taking care to mention 

 as many words as possible as are either of a doubtful or 

 different origin ; premising, however, two things first, that 

 the words were so much disguised by their manner of pro- 

 nouncing them that I found it very difficult to understand 

 them until I had written them down ; secondly, that Tupia, 

 from the very first, understood and conversed with them 

 with great facility. 



I must remark that most of the southern language was 

 not taken down by myself, and I am inclined to believe 

 that the person who did it for me made use of more letters 

 in spelling the words than were absolutely necessary. The 

 genius of the language, especially in the southern parts, is to 

 add some particle the or a before a noun as we do ; the 

 was generally Jce or Jco. They also often add to the end of 

 any word, especially if it is in answer to a question, the word 

 oeia, which signifies yes, really, or certainly. This some- 

 times led our gentlemen into the most long-winded words, 

 one of which I shall mention as an example. In the Bay 

 of Islands a very remarkable island was called by the natives 

 Motu aro ; some of our gentlemen asked the name of this 

 from one of the natives, who answered, I suppose, as usual 

 Komotu aro; the gentleman not hearing well the word, 

 repeated his question, on which the Indian repeated his 

 answer, adding oeia to the end of the name, which made it 



