PUAKA. 



By Ivok H. X. Evans. 



In Tregear's " Maori Comparative Dictionary " is to be found 

 a word poaka, meaning a pig, a hog, and it is stated that the term, 

 generally supposed to be a corruption of the English word 

 " porker," is genuinely Polynesian. 



Vodka is found, in varying forms, in many Polynesian dialects 

 and languages. Thus, according to Tregear, we have Samoan — 

 pua'a: Tahitian — puaa; Hawaiian — puaa; Tongan — buaka; Earo- 

 tongan — puaJca; Marquesan — puaa; Mangarevan — puaka. 



Outside Polynesia proper, too, but not outside the bounds of 

 Polynesian linguistic, and other influences, we have such examples 

 as vudka (Fiji) ; puaka (Eotuma). 



Now to any one who knows Malay the word puaJca (or puivdka) 

 is, of course quite familiar. It is not at all uncommon to come 

 across places, often where there is some big tree, which, are said to 

 be ber-puaka, i.e. haunted by a puaka. The. Malay has however, 

 as far as I have been able to find out, absolutely no idea that puaka 

 has anything to do with " pig/' a puaka being apparently, accord- 

 ing to Malay belief, a spirit, either a tree spirit or a genius loci.i 1 ) 



Among the Dusuns of British North Borneo ( 2 ) the puaka ( 3 ) 

 is said to be a spirit which has the form of a pig. The puaka go 

 in companies, hunt human beings, and have the peculiarity — like 

 many spirits — that they cannot cross water with impunity. If 

 they do so, they die, through licking all the flesh from their bones 

 with their sharp tongues. 



In Hawaii, besides being commonly used as the ordinary word 

 for pig, puaka, either by itself, or in combination with some other 

 word, may mean a spirit of some kind, often a spirit in the form 

 of a pig ; thus we find in Tregear's dictionary the statement that 

 " puaa' 3 seems to have been originally the name of any large quad- 

 ruped, but (was?) afterwards restricted to hogs. The word occurs 

 frequently in old legends and myths as descriptive of monsters, 



(1) "The locally presiding earth-demon (puaka), " "Malay 



Magic," p. 144. 



Ayer oerputar jangan chebok, 



Puivaka besar dudok menunggu 

 don't take your water from an eddy, a mighty demon dwells there to 

 guard it." Wilkinson's Malay Dictionary. 



(2) Those of Piasau in the Tempasuk District. 



(3) The word was, by mistake, written pulcou in a folk-story which 



I collected in Borneo. I am nearly certain, however, that the spelling puaka 



is correct. For the folk-story vide J. B. A. I., 1913, p. 452. 



-*( 



Jour. Straits Branch R. A. Soc, No. 81, 1920. 



