242 JOHN FRASER. 



wa) for 'one'; another of them is muka, 'first," and this word, by 

 dropping the k, which is never* sounded in Samoan, becomes the 

 tSamoan mua, 'first,' and mua-ulu, 'the fore-head, 'f Mua also is 

 very common in Samoan (as in foe-mua, 'the 'first' or stroke oar,' 

 a-fua, 'to begin'), and thus proves itself to be native to the lan- 

 guage. Further, you may have observed that some of the Aus- 

 tralian words for ' one ' are mo, mata. With mo compare the 

 Santo word mo-ig 'to begin,' — another proof that the Santoans 

 and the Australians are kinsmen ; with mata compare the Motu 

 (N. Guinea) word mata-ma, 'to begin,' and, as an adjective, 'first'; 

 the Fijian matai, 'first,' and tau-mada 'before-hand'; the Maori 

 ti-mata 'to begin'; the Samoan a-mata 'to begin'; the New 

 Britain a-ma-na 'before, in front,' mata-na, 'the front,' biti-na 

 'the commencement'; the Motu badi-na, 'origin,' and the Aneit- 

 yumese ni-mti-din, 'the front'; with mu compare the Fijian vu- 

 na, 'to begin,' and the New Britain wa-vuna, 'to begin,' and the 

 Santo mul, 'a chief,' as being the ' first' man. All these I have 

 noticed in the course of my reading, but I believe there are many 

 other words in these islands which are of the same origin as our 

 Australian word wakul. | I pray you to remember that, with the 

 exception of Samoa and New Zealand, these words all come from 

 Papuan regions and afford indirect evidence that our Australians 

 are allied to the Papuans. 



As to the Maori and Samoan congeners that I have quoted, it 

 is commonly alleged that these races are Malayo-Polynesians, 

 on the theory that their languages are of Malay origin ;§ but let 

 us look at this theory in the light of our present inquiry. It is 



* The one solitary exception is puke, 'catch you ! '--a word used by 

 children in their games. 



f An uncommon form of the root ba is va; and from it the Mangaians 

 (Hervey Islands) say va-ri, 'a beginning'; but in the Koiari dialect of 

 New Guinea this same word means 'the forehead/ ' the face.' This word 

 thus illustrates the procession of meaning's from the root pra (para) 

 pro, 'before '; for vari is equivalent to ' that which is before,' hence " a 

 beginning,' ' the forehead ' as the ' front ' part of the human body, ' the 

 face'; it also throws some light on the derivation of frons, which has 

 so puzzled Latin etymologists that some of them derive it from the Greek 

 ophrus, 'the eyebrow'! The Motumotu dialect of New Guinea says 

 hali, instead of vari, for 'forehead'; several other dialects there say 

 i-piri-ti, paru, para-na, pira-na, for face'; these are all connected 

 with the Dravidian pira, 'before.' 



X These and all other words from the New Britain and Duke of York 

 Islands I quote from manuscript dictionaries of these languages, pre- 

 pared by the Missionaries there. It is much to be regretted that, in 

 these Colonies, we have no public fund from which to defray the cost of 

 printing these and similar works, which would be so valuable to Science. 



§ The name and authority of K. Wilhelm von Humboldt first gave this 

 theory a standing; but we have now much fuller materials on which to 

 form an independent judgment. 



