VOCABULARY OF BOUGAINVILLE STRAITS. 189 



Islands. Thus the IJoshoa of the Austral Islands, the DarasJd of 

 Bougainville Straits, the Harrassas of the Indian Archipelago, and 

 the Vua-tckirie ^ of North Madagascar, may be the same compound 

 word in different forms. Vua, it should be remarked, is a prefix 

 attached to many trees and plants in this part of Madagascai". 

 With this digression, I will now proceed. 



Amongst the native names of trees in the Indian or Malay Archi- 

 pelago which are to be found in an altered form in the islands of 

 Bougainville Straits, I may refer to Kanari, which is the common 

 appellation of " Canarium commune," in the former region.^ The 

 kernels of the fruits of this tree furnish a frequent source of food to 

 the Malay races and also to the inhabitants of the Maclay coast of 

 New Guinea, where the tree is known by the similar name of Kengar? 

 In the islands of Bougainville Straits, where the same or an allied 

 species of " Canarium " is found, the fruits of which form a staple 

 article of food, the Malay name of Kanari and the New Guinea 

 name of Kengar have been contracted to Ka-i. . . . The sago-palm 

 (" Sagus," sp.) affords another instance. It is, according to Crawfurd, 

 the Rdmhiya of the Indian Archipelago.* Earl informs us that in 

 Kisa, one of the islands of the Sarawati group in the Banda Sea, it 

 is known as the Pihir.^ On the Maclay coast of New Guinea it is 

 the Buam.^ In Bougainville Straits it receives two names, Bia and 

 Nartii, the fomier (I think) being applied to the tree and the latter 

 to the sago. . . . Then again, the two similar names, the Katari of 

 Bougainville Straits and the Gutur of the Maclay coast,'^ are applied 

 in both regions to resin-yielding trees which belong, however, to 

 different genera, the Katari being a species of " Calophyllum," and 

 the Gutur a species of " Canarium." In both localities the name is 

 also given to the resin itself, which is employed by the natives for 

 various purposes. But the important point is that these two words 

 are merely slightly altered forms of Gdtah, which is the general 

 name for gums and resins in the Indian Archipelago f and I need 

 scarcely add that gutta-percha is but the gdtah of the Pdrcha tree, 



^ Eochon's "Voyage a Madagascar et aux Indes Orientales." Paris, 1791, p. 319. 

 - In the numerous works referring to the Indian Archipelago, this word is sometimes 

 written kanari/ or kanarie. 

 3 Miklouho-:Maclay in Proc. Lin. Soc, X.S.W. VoL X., p. 349. 



* Crawfui'd's "Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language." 



5 "Journal of the Indian Archipelago." Vol. IL, p. 695 (184S). 



6 MiHouho-Maclay Proc. Lin. Soc, N.S.W. Vol. X., p. 349. 



7 ^liklouho-Maclay (Ibid., p. 353, 357). 



* Crawfurd's " Malay Dictionary." 



