152 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



of patan, to cut. Examples from the Gospel are : — Ngalpa mulemipa, 

 we say ; mura demoni nubepa ieudemipa, all tlie demons besought him ; 

 ngau ia idimoiginga^ my words shall not pass away ; durai patan pui- 

 tamal a idbugudanu a poidmnoin, some cut branches, and spread on the 

 road ; mura mudo garoweidamoin, aU the crowd assembled. 



Many words which naturally have a plural agent are rarely found 

 except in the plural form, such as, garoweidamoin, to assemble together ; 

 gudamoin, to discuss. 



5. Verbax Prefixes. 



The Saibai verb is rarely found in the Gospels or vocabularies 

 (except in Macgillivray's) in a simple form. It mostly appears with 

 a prefix, which, to some extent, serves the purpose of an adverb and 

 defines the meaning- It is in some cases difficult to ascertain the 

 exact meaning of the verb itself, or of its connection with the idea ex- 

 pressed by the prefix, but the meanings of the latter are in most cases 

 clear. The prefixes may be conveniently classified as corporal, 

 nominal, modal, and directive. 



(1.) Corporal Prefixes. — These are names of parts of the body. 



1. Bag, cheek ; lag-taean, to promise. 



2. Ban, dana, eye ; dan-paliz, to open the eyes, be awake (eye- 



divide) ; danal-pataipa, to watch (put out eyes) ; dan-taean, 

 to exhort (roll or throw eyes). 



3. Gamu, body ; gamu-diwapa, dance ; gamu-doidanu, tired 



(body in wilderness) ; gamuia-mataman, to murder ; gamu- 

 tariz, to touch. 



4. Get, geta, geto, hand ; geto-nitun, to point ; geto-pagaean, to 



apprehend ; geto-waean, to loose, let go ; geto-pudeipa, to 

 scrape hands, etc. 



5. Gud, guda, gudo, mouth ; guda-moin, to discuss ; guda- 



palamiz, to overflow ; guda-purutan, to be insolent (eat- 

 mouth) ; gudo-nitun, to advise ; gudo-tapaman, to kiss. 



6. Kakura, kuhu, foot, toes ; hakura-pataean, to step across ; 



kukuna-mapeipa, to kick. 



7. kuiko, kuiku, head ; kuiku-iman, to begin (find head) ; kuiko- 



patan, to behead ; kuiko-taean, to nod, etc. 



8. Madu, flesh ; madu-paman, to start, be afraid. 



9. Ngona, breath, heart ; ngona-pudiz, to take a long breath, to 



rest ; ngonanu-mani, to remember (bring into the heart). 



