503 



like one word, though they place the accent on each component 

 more or less as is done in the German compound words. 



It must be remembered that the sounds r and I ought to- 

 be replaced by an intermediate sound, as the natives do not 

 distinguish between them. It is certainly a fact that the 

 natives, nowadays, sound very distinct r's and /'s when pro- 

 nouncing words slowly and clearly for the European to take 

 them down. There is not the slightest doubt, however, that 

 this is a phonetic corruption, under European influence. 

 Originally the natives had one "intermediate" sound, and 

 there was no distinction between r and /. This is the reason 

 why they, at the present time, always mix the two sounds. 

 The same native will, on the same day, say both Mailu and 

 then Mairii ; or mix freely Kurere and Kulele, if you press 

 him for clear r's and /'s. 



The same holds good in Mailu with reference to the sounds- 

 t and s; these are always mixed, a Mailu native saying quite 

 as often Tamarai as Samarai, for instance. There is, or rather 

 was originally, no distinction between f and s among the Mailu,. 

 the ''intermediate" sound ts (Polish and Slavonic c — the sound 

 in car=tsar). In contact with Europeans, and under the 

 necessity of adapting their words to our spelling, the natives 

 have learned to split the sound ts into t and s, the result being 

 that the two latter sounds are interchangeable, as they cannot 

 really decide which to use. I have used the spelling ts through- 

 out. Whenever the Mailu natives talk to each other they 

 always use the original sound ts; never t or s. 



CHAPTER T. 



GEOGRAPHY. 



The Country of the Mailu; Bain fall; Rivers; Flora and 

 Fauna; Reefs; Quarries. — The Mailu inhabit the seaboard 

 from Cape Rodney in the west to the middle of Orangerie Bay 

 in the east. Near Cape Rodney there is a belt of flat alluvial 

 soil, extending far inland, and eastwards as far as Cloudy Bay. 

 Near the latter the hills, which in this part of the continent 

 run in a series of longitudinal parallel ranges, rising one 

 beyond the other and culminating in the Main Range, 

 approach the sea, though they do not rise to any great vertical 

 height. 



Cloudy Bay is closed on the east by Dedele Point : then 

 comes Baxter Bay terminated by Table Point, so named after 

 the flat table-topped hills which rise a couple of miles beyond 

 the level foreshore of the Cape. From Table (or Batvmata) 

 'Point to Cape Mogubo (Greenaway Point) an alluvial flat 

 again stretches for some distance inland. From the sea the 



