82 Transactions. —Miscellaneous. 
partakes of the nature of an article as do, also, te tahi (literally the one) and 
its plural etahi.* The latter, he thinks, corresponds very nearly with the 
use of the French des, or the adjectival “‘some”’ of English. Thus— 
Te tahi maripi, a knife ; maku etahi ika, give me some fish. 
He shews, also, that te is used 
1. Where no article is required in English, as, he kino te tutu, dis- 
obedience is sinful. 
2. In the place of the English a, as, he mea kaha te hoiho, a horse is a 
strong thing. 
3. Sometimes for the pronoun ‘‘some,”’ as, kei tahaetia e te tangata, lest 
it should be stolen by some one. 
4, Before proper names, as, Te Puriri, ete. 
Somewhat similar variations may be noticed in the case of he, which, 
like te, is often used where no article is required in English, in the sense of 
‘some,’ and, before nouns in the plural number, as, kawea he wai, fetch 
some water ; he tint oku kainga, my farms are many.t . 
I must mention here that Mr. Logan, to whom all students of « Oceanic’’ 
Philology are so much indebted, has pointed out {the curious fact that, in 
what he calls W. Indonesia, i. e., Sumatra, Java, ete., the definite article is 
si: this si, he thinks, is nearly connected with the Polynesian tahi, tasi,— 
and, probably, with the modified forms se and he. In like manner, other 
forms such as iti, ti and te, resemble closely the Polynesian te and ta. 
Again, an and ang, which occur frequently in an appellative sense, have a 
striking similarity to the Polynesian na, nga; while the ka, kua, and koe 
of Maori, Tongan and Saumatoan, would seem to be connected with 
similar forms in the dialects of W. Indonesia. In a former essay,|} the 
same distinguished scholar has shown, that there are many characteristic 
features in Polynesian, which have not been preserved, either in Sanskrit 
or in any of its modern derived dialects, but, which are, at the same time, 
* The forms corresponding with etahi in the different dialects have a strong family 
resemblance. Thus— 
Rarotongoan has tetai, etai. 
Mangarevan mai. 
Hawai tahi and tetahi (and wahi) which is also found in New Zealand, 
Samoan sa, setasi, letasi, etasi 
The Tongan (like the Mangarevan) is different—viz., na, foenihi (compare here the 
Samoan, nisi), and etaha. 
+ Buschmann (p. 168) points out that, in Tahitian, taoua....ra sometimes occurs for 
the Definite Article ; | te hoe, maa, te maa, and te hoe maa - the Indefinite. 
* Journ. Ind, Arch.,” Vol. VI., 
i “ Journ. Ind. Arch.,” Vol. IV., a 
