138 H. B. GUPPY, M.B., ON 



of the special labours of the philologist led this celebrated 

 botanist into some grave errors,* and it is evident that 

 "without a special study of the phonetic laws of a region any 

 conclusions based on its plant-names are often likely to be 

 erroneous. For instance, an inquirer not versed in these 

 laws would never imagine that " Ahia " and " Nagveg," the 

 names of Eugenia malaccensis in Tahiti and the Banks Group, 

 are both forms of the Fijian "Kavika" (see Table appended). 

 On the other hand, he would fall in with the suggestion 

 thrown out by Nadeaud, that there is a connection between 

 " Ahi," the Tahitian name for Sandal-wood, and " Ahi," the 

 Tuhitian word for fire, on account of the wood making fire 

 readily when struck with an axe. When, however, we look 

 for these two Avords in other Polynesian languages, we find, 

 according to the letter changes, that the original forms occur in 

 Samoa as " Asi," Sandal-wood, and as " Afi," fire, both Avorcls 

 being radically distinct. 



With regard to the particular standpoint from which I 

 will view the relation of the Polynesians to the other peoples 

 of the Pacific, there is, I think, no serious difference of opinion 

 as to the contrast in physical characters presented by an 

 Australian, a Solomon Islander, a Tahitian, and a Pona- 

 pean. In the present distribution of the Australians, the 

 Melanesians, the Polynesians, and the Micronesians, we 

 have clearly exhibited the stratification of race-varieties 

 which are arranged, owing to the peculiar geographi- 

 cal conditions, in chronological order. Regarding Further 

 India as the ancient home at different periods of all these 

 peoples, I infer that each in its turn left the Asiatic mainland 

 to find a home where best it could. Along the highway of 

 the Indian Archipelago travelled successively the ancestors 

 of the present Australian, Melanesian, Polynesian, and 

 Micronesian peoples ; and it may be assumed that it was not 

 the exercise of any deliberate choice that led them to their 

 several homes. In their movement southward through the 

 Archipelago, the Australians came in contact doubtless with- 

 an earlier race, a stratum in man's history that has suffered 

 the fate of most old formations by being largely concealed 

 by those more recent in the series. Shunning the open sea, 

 the Australians followed the trend of the Archipelago and 



* This is especially true of his ixncritical use of the Sanscrit names. Vide 

 also Schrader's Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, Eug. edit., 

 p. 21. 



