J. T. Thomson. — On Barata Numerals. 131 



Art. XIV. — On Barata Numerals. By J. T. Thomson, F.R.G.S. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, llnd 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)i; 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 

 obtains, 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. KZ. Inst., Vol. V., Art. I., p. 23. 



t 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' dictionary, 

 is as follows: — taJii, one; rua, two; toru, three; wha, four; rima, five; ono, six; whitu, 

 seven ; waru, eight ; iwa, nine ; ngahuru, ten ; tekau, eleven. 



