SCIENCE. 



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



Almost every stick in a native house 

 bears its special name. Each one of the 

 six houses, that every well-to do Hawaiian 

 was supposed to have, before the advent of 

 the whites, had its appropriate use and 

 name. 



These were — 



1. The Heiau, where the idols -were kept. 



2. The Miia, the eating-house for the husband. 



3. The Noa, or separate house for the "wife. 



4. The Hale aina, or eating-house for the wife. 



5. The Kva, or the wife's work-house. 



6. The Hale pea, or the hospital for the wife. 



To fully understand these arrangements 

 we must bear in mind that during the reign 

 of the tabu, men and women never ate to- 

 gether under any circumstances. The food 

 of the husband could not be cooked in the 

 same oven used by the wife, and pork and 

 many kinds of fish were absolutely pro- 

 hibited to females ; but they could eat dog 

 and fowl. 



The custom of applying a term connected 

 with the position of the sun to designate a 

 locality, common in other countries, finds 

 usage in Hawaii. France has her Midi, 

 Spain her Levante and Poniente, and the 

 Kanakas their Kau. Kau means summer 

 or warm season, and is used to designate 

 the most southern province of Hawaii. In 

 the first case we have the name of the hot- 

 test part of the day given to the territory, 

 and in the latter the name of the hottest 

 part of the year is so utilized. 



Seat of Moral Powers—Parallel Italian Ex- 

 pressions. — The Hawaiians supposed that 

 each man had two souls. One died with 

 the body, the other lived on as a ghost, and 

 was known by strange squeaking or whis- 

 tling sounds {muki), like the ghosts which 

 did ' squeak and gibber in the Roman 

 streets.' Polynesian ethics also taught 

 that the seat of the moral powers was in the 

 small intestines. The word loko, which 

 means luithin, was applied to the moral 

 state or disposition. This idea was so 



prominent that large stomachs were culti- 

 vated as indicative of great moral strength. 

 The word papio was applied to the act of 

 lying face downward with nothing for the 

 belly to rest on for the purpose of enlarging 

 it and thus augmenting the moral powers. 



This peculiar thought, after all, is not 

 very far removed from that contained in 

 the Italian expressions, amiao sviscerato, 

 bosom friend, and lui amore sviscerato, an in- 

 tense passionate love — literally a disem- 

 boweled love. N'o doubt the idea came 

 through sources where a belief was held 

 similar to that prevalent in Hawaii. Com- 

 pare also Mi ha levato un peso dallo stomaco, 

 He took a weight off my stomach ; likewise 

 the sentence, Questanuovaviferiranella parte 

 piu. cara delle vostre viseere. Besides, there 

 has always been more or less connection, 

 either expressed or implied, between the 

 mind and stomach. It was in the Latin 

 language that the original Greek word 

 dTo/ia changed its meaning from mouth to 

 belly. After this the step was easy from 

 the organs of digestion to those of senti- 

 ment, and we find many examples in the 

 Romance languages of this enlarged mean- 

 ing of the original word. So the idea finds 

 expression not alone in the South seas, but 

 may be found cropping out all along the 

 road of linguistic development, whether it 

 be in Greece or Polynesia. 



E. D. Peeston. 



TJ. S. Coast axd Geodetic Suevey, 

 Washington, D. C. 



COAL FLORAS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 

 The plant remains of the Trans-Missis- 

 sippian coal field have received but scant 

 notice. Something of their character is 

 found recorded in the writings of Les- 

 quereux, Newberry and others. These, 

 however, are the merest glimpses, and give 

 but faint conception of the actual extent 

 and multiplicity of form that the floras of 

 the coal measures present. 



