896 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 284. 



the vividness with which natural things are 

 portrayed . Aim ost every conceivable wind 

 has a special name. Kona is a wind from 

 the southwest ; hoolua, a strong north wind ; 

 ea, the sea breeze at Lahaina ; ulumano, a 

 violent wind at night on the west side of 

 Hawaii ; mumuku, a wind blowing between 

 two mountains ; kin, a northwest wind at 

 Hana Kaupo ; hau, a land breeze that blows 

 at night ; and so on almost indefinitely. 

 Notice that special terms are given to local 

 winds. Just how the Seabreeze at Lahaina 

 differs from that at other places does not 

 appear ; nevertheless ea applies to this lo- 

 cality and to none other. 



Every day of the month has its special 

 name. They count by nights and not by 

 days. Po akahi means the first night, i. e., 

 Monday, po alua, the second night, or Tues- 

 day, and so on. There are six different 

 words meaning to carry ; ten to express the 

 different ways of standing ; twenty that ap- 

 ply to various positions of sitting. This 

 shows with what vivid imagery the Ha- 

 waiian describes the actions of everyday 

 life. Here are a few examples of shades of 

 meaning for the word carry : 



Mli, to carry, in general. 



auamo, to carry on the shoulder ■with a stick. 



ka'i ka'i, to carry in the hands. 



Mi, to carry, as a child in the arms. 



koi, to carry on a stick between two men. 



haawi, to carry on the back, etc., etc., etc. 



When the missionaries came to translate 

 the Bible they met an unexpected difficulty. 

 It was necessary to decide between the ages 

 of Mary and Martha, because it is impos- 

 sible to speak of two sisters in the Hawaiian 

 language without indicating which is the 

 older. I do not know that anything is 

 said in the Scriptures fixing definitely the 

 relative ages of these two persons. The 

 translators were obliged to decide from the 

 context, in the absence of explicit and posi- 

 tive information on the subject. 



The childlike and primitive character of 



the language is shown in the absence of 

 abstract words and general terms, as also 

 in the continual repetition of syllables. 

 The first words pronounced by our own chil- 

 dren are a repetition of two of the easiest 

 sounds, pa-pa, ma-ma. The Hawaiians 

 carry this to excess. Take the word Huniu 

 hmnu nuku nuku ajmaa. This consists large- 

 ly of repetitions, and is the name of a 

 small fish considerably shorter than its 

 name as ordinarily written. Here is an- 

 other fish — Muku muku ivahanui. However, 

 in this case it suits Hawaiian ideas equally 

 well whether you say Muku muku or Kumu 

 kumu. The mere fact of a transposition of 

 syllables is nothing in a language where 

 there are 20 conjugations and where the 

 verb has nearly 3500 forms. 



Corfence.— Cadence is one of the prime 

 features in all the South sea dialects. So 

 essential is this considered that the tonic 

 accent must be carried forward when an en- 

 clitic is employed. The stress is usually on 

 the penultimate in the word Lani (heaven), 

 but with the addition of la it falls on ni, 

 and we say ma ka lani-la. Ua moku-la, al- 

 ready given, is another example. 



How much more rhythm is regarded in 

 tropical than in northern languages may be 

 seen by comparing the examples just cited 

 with the Spanish, where they say deiiie for 

 give me and demelo for give me it. ITo 

 matter how many enclitics are employed, 

 the accent is still retained in its original 

 place. 



Mathematical Jiieas.— Examine their sys- 

 tem of counting. The unit is four. This 

 arose from taking cocoanuts and fish — two 

 in each hand. After laying aside ten units 

 of four, or forty they turned back and 

 counted another forty. This process was 

 continued for ten forties, which took the 

 name of lau. Ten of these made 4000, or 

 mano ; and so they went on until 400,000 

 was reached, beyond which they had no 

 conception. This was the old system. The 



