86 Transactions.—Miscellaneous. 
Fu ulu, a single head—or the whole head; Fu wi, a single yam, or an 
entire yam. Again, an interchange not unfrequently occurs—substantives 
being used as adjectives or vice versé, as, he vaka Fiji, a Fiji Canoe. In 
some cases, adjectives are derived from substantives by adding ta or ea—as, 
mafanna, heat; mafannaia, hot. In degrees of comparison, Tongan is 
nearly the same as Maori—but, the substantive verb would seem 
always to come first, as, gua lille ange he mea koeni gi he mea koia—is, better | 
this than that thing (Mariner, p. 12). The superlative is, generally, 
made by the addition of the word obito most, very—as, this axe is the best, 
koe togi koeni gua lille obito. Dy. Maunsell observes that in Maori, adjectives, 
generally, take the form of the noun with which they are connected—ée. if 
the noun be verbal, so is also the adjective—as, oranga tonutanga, Eternal 
life; that, when there are several qualities, the noun must be repeated with 
each quality ; as, he tangata nui, he tangata pai, etc., that a common mode of 
denoting inferiority of degree is to associate together two contrary qualities 
as, pat kino, good—bad, i.e., indifferently good; Roa poto, long—short, t.e., 
of moderate length, etc., and, lastly, that, to represent the superlative 
degree, the definite article is sometimes prefixed with or without some 
word of intensity, as, ko au te kaumaiua, 1 am the eldest son; ko te nui 
tenei o nga rakau katoa, this the large one (i.e., the largest of all the trees). 
M. Buschmann remarks that, while the determining adjective comes 
after the substantive, an adjective preceding, it acts as its attribute, in 
connexion with the verb “to be.’’ Thus, in Tahitian, te muua roa is, the 
high mountain, while ¢ roa te muwa means, the mountain is high (p. 178). 
Again, in Tahitian the comparative is made by the particles aé (ange in 
Tongan) and atu (so in Maori) placed after the Adjective. 
Mr. Logan has suggested (‘‘ Journ. Ind. Arch.,”’ Vol. V., p. 219), that the 
system of reduplication so prevalent in the Polynesian dialects is due to a 
love of ‘‘euphonic echo,” and that, by this means, plurality, intensity, 
repetition and reciprocity, are very eflectively expressed. The same system 
prevails in Malay, and, occasionally, in Javanese, but it is far more 
extensively used in the Polynesian dialects than elsewhere. Thus, in 
Samoan, lau utele, is, a great tree; lau utetele, large trees. Rarotongan, Makt, 
sick ; maki maki, sick persons. Javanese, homa gede, large house, homa gede 
gede, large houses. Again the Superlative in Viti (Fiji) is made of the 
reduplication of the Adverb, thus levu sara sara means, very very great. 
In Javanese, the same effect is produced by doubling the adjective—as 
duwor duworre, the highest. So, too, adverbs may be doubled, as genti genti, 
by turns. For intensity of action, we find in Tongan, tete, to tremble; tete tete, 
