J. T. THomson.—On Barata Numerals. 131 
Art. XIV.—On Barata Numerals. By J. T. Tuomson, F.R.G.S. 
[Read before the Otago Institute, 22nd July, 1872.] 
THE great insular languages of the Torrid Zone I have shown in a previous 
paper* to have been originally derived from an archaic negro race occupying 
the peninsula of Hindostan, anciently termed the country of Barata. The 
language of this archaic negro race was there shown to have extended from 
Madagascar to Easter Island. As I have, since I wrote the former paper, had 
an opportunity of comparing the numerals of thirty-four off-shoots of the 
above archaic and wonderfully expansive race, I now beg to submit to our 
Society the remarks and observations that have occurred to me, and from 
which I derive certain conclusions, which will have the weight due only to 
the very narrow limits of inquiry and imperfect materials available to me. 
Taking the aboriginal numerals of New Zealand, viz., the Maori, as the 
basis of our comparisons, it will be found, on referring to the annexed table (see 
p- 137) that this basis would equally serve for any or all of the great Polynesian 
groups, their numerals being radically the same with the above, such as the 
Cocos, Friendly, Society, Marquesas, and Sandwich Islands, even to the 
remote Easter Island. Comparing the numerals of that remote and distantly 
disjoined island at the westerly extreme of expansion of the great Barata race, 
viz., Madagascar, the curious fact will appear that out of the ten numerals 
only one is dissimilar, and only so far as the dissimilarity consists in a 
convertible consonant ; the root of the numeral “one,” in which the sole 
dissimilarity takes place, being in Maori, ta (tahai)t; Malagasi, sa (essa) ; and 
it will be seen in comparing this numeral in the intermediate races of the 
Eastern Archipelago and adjacent groups that this dissimilarity equally 
dbtains, some races adopting the dental pronunciation of the Maori, others 
the sibilant pronunciation of the Malagasi. Thus, in the first essay to 
count, one of the most distant and important races of the human family has 
been divided at centre and extremes. 
* See Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. V., Art. L, p. 23. 
+ As phonography differs in various parts of New Zealand, I carefully weighed the 
question of spelling the Maori numerals, and decided on the forms here used as affording 
the best illustrations for my paper. The usual spelling, as given in Williams’ dietionary, 
is as follows :—tahi, one ; rua, two; toru, three; wha, four; rima, five; ono, six; whitu, 
seven; waru, eight; iwa, nine; ngahuru, ten; tekau, eleven. 
