J. T. Tuomsoxn.—On Barat or Barata Fossil Words, 157 
traditions.’ If furnished with the necessary philological and ethnological 
materials I might be able to indicate the early history of your island.” 
Postscript By Proressor von Haast. 
It is scarcely necessary to point out the important nature of this 
communication, which opens up quite a new field for research into the 
early history of these islands, and goes far to prove the great antiquity of 
the paintings in question. In reference to Mr. Cameron's views, I may, 
however, be allowed to observe that these red paintings have evidently all 
been executed at the same time, and cannot therefore represent two distinct 
periods, or have been the work of two distinct races. In stating in the post- 
script to my address that when speaking of the great antiquity of these 
paintings, I did not do so in the European sense, but only as far as there 
were existing reliable traditions of the present Native inhabitants of these 
islands, I did not wish to give any expression as to my views of what the 
real age of these paintings might be. Before doing so I wished to obtain 
more material. However, anybody acquainted with my own views in 
regard to the great number of years these islands have been inhabited, and - 
the long period of time since the Moa has become extinct through the 
agency of man, of which we have ample geological evidence (the only one 
to be trusted), will easily understand that I can only coincide with Mr. 
Cameron's opinion as to the great antiquity of the paintings in question, 
even in the European sense. 
Art, XV.— Barat or Barata Fossil Words. By J. TumwNsvLL Thomson, 
F.R.G.S., F.R.S.8.A., ete. 
Plate IV. 
(Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, February, 1879.] 
This continues the subject of three preceding papers”, and the heading 
requires some explanation. Barat is the Malay traditional and poetical 
name for Hindustan, and to this day they speak of the angin Barat—that 
is, westerly, or wind of Barat; as they do of the angin Jawa—that is, the 
southerly, or wind of Java. Barata, or Bharata, is the ancient term for 
their country by the natives of Hindustan. In the language of Madagascar, 
allowing for difference of phonology, precisely the same word is used for 
the North, viz., avaratra, whose winds wafted commerce from the parent 
country, viz., South India. We use the term parent on the force of the 
facts elicited in our preceding investigations. 
* Whence of the Maori, Trans. N. Z. Inst., Vol. IV.; Barata Numerals, Vol. V. ; 
Philological Considerations on the Whence of the Maori, Vol. VI, 
