62 ON THE OEIGIN AND MIGRATIONS OP THE POLYNESIAN NATION. 



Philippines. I may add, in passing, that one of our own respected 

 members, Mr. Edward Hill, who spent four years of his life in 

 sailing among the South Sea Islands, and who knows, perhaps, 

 more about their inhabitants than any other person in this Colony, 

 while he coincides with me entirely in regarding these islanders 

 as Malays from the Indian Archipelago, conceives that the Philip- 

 pine Islands were their starting point from that Archipelago, 

 and that, to use the nautical language, they made their easting in 

 the Northern hemisphere, but in that Equatorial belt, in which 

 La Perouse and Admiral Hunter inform us that at certain 

 seasons of the year westerly winds are as prevalent as easterly. 



We should also expect if my theory is well founded, that the 

 Indian languages of South America generally, down to the Equa- 

 tor, would exhibit much more of the Polynesian and vocalic 

 character than those of the northern continent, the latter being 

 so much farther from the original point of departure. And this 

 is precisely what we find in fact. Whole strings of words in the 

 language of the Indians of the British province of Gruiana, whole 

 strings of words in the language of the Cuna Indians of the Isth- 

 mus of Darien, are in their form and character precisely like so 

 many words in the Polynesian dialects of New Zealand and 

 Tahiti. 



A scholar, accustomed to trace the affinities, or to detect the 

 radical dissimilarity of different languages, would at once unhesi- 

 tatingly assert that the following words of the dialect of the 

 Warows, of British Guiana, were just so many words of the 

 Polynesian tongue : — 



Head 



Magaah 



Water 



Ho 



Eyes 



Maamu 



Earth 



Hotah 



Mouth 



Maroho 



Sun 



Yah 



Hair 



Maaheo 



Moon 



Waanehah 



Ears 



Mahohoko 



Stars 



Keorah 



Arms 



Mahaara 



Thunder 



Nahaa 



Skin 



Mahoro 



Rain 



Naahaa 



Blood 



Hotuh 



Paddle 



Haahah 



The following words are from the dialect of New Zealand : — 

 Mahana Day Madino Smooth 



Marama The moon Maha Much 



Maripi A sword Matapo Blind 



N.B. — The syllable Ma, in both lists, is in all likelihood a 

 prefix. 



The following Indian names of localities on the Demerara 

 Eiver, supplied me by a friend returned to England from Deme- 

 rara, have also quite a Polynesian aspect : — Arigaraboe, Hiagua, 

 Haboe, Boera-boera-wa, Warawarau, Maraka, Mamaa, Moenetari, 

 Mari Mari, Winipio, Mamikoeroa, Toematamatia, Motolca, Aky- 

 ma, Kaiwalia, Kamakaiaha, Dalawila, Wai, or Yai, is the Polyne- 



