SOME REMARKS ON THE AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGES. 247 



the same root-forms there are, in the New Hebrides, New Britain, 

 and Polynesia, numerous words in the sense of 'follow,' 'again,' 

 'another,' 'a couple,' 'also.' The Melanesian word mu-le, 'again/ 

 and the Malay pu-la, 'again,' connect themselves, not only with 

 the Dravidian ma-ru, mu-ru, but also with the Sanskrit word 

 pu-nar, 'back,' 'again,' and also with the Greek pa-lin, 'again,' 



6. Words for ' ivater' and ' blind. 1 



(a). And, for the same reason, I must forego the consideration of 

 the Australian words for 'water,' 'fire,' 'sun,' 'eye,' &c, all of which 

 could be proved to have their roots in India, and to have stems 

 and branches from these roots in Aryan Europe, in Malay lands, 

 and in the islands of the South Seas. Let me before closing, just 

 give you a glimpse of the line of argument which I intended to 

 follow. Collins quotes bad o as the Port Jackson word for 'water':, 

 others write it badu ; it is found in various parts of our colony 

 and in Western Australia. The root is ba ( = ma); and du is a 

 Dravidian formative to neuter nouns. The root ma means 'to be 

 liquid,' ' to flow.' It is a very old word ; for the Assyrian cunei- 

 form inscriptions have ma mi, ' waters,' and this is a plural by re- 

 duplication ; the Hebrew has mo, ma(i), 'water,' moa, 'to flow;' 

 the ancient Egyptian has mo, 'water,' whence the name Moses ; 

 the Sanskrit has ambu (am for ma, by metathesis), 'water,' the 

 Keltic has amhainn, abhuinn, 'a river,' whence come the river- 

 names, 'Avon.' From ma come the words wai and vai which are 

 so common for ' water ' in the New Hebrides and in the Poly- 

 nesian islands, and from the same root, in a sense known to the 

 Arabs, by an appropriate euphemism, as 'the water of the feet,' 

 come the Melanesian and Polynesian words mi, mim, mimi, 

 miaga, &c, the Sanskrit mih and the Keltic mun. From am 

 ( = ab = ap) comes the Sanskrit plural form apas, 'water,' while 

 from ma may come the Latin mad-id us, ' wet.' We found that 

 wa-kul, 'one,' comes from root ba, ma; so, from the root of ba- 

 du, comes the Australian word wa-la, which means 'rain,' and in 

 some places, 'water.' 



As to the kindred of our Sydney badu, I would remind you 

 that ' water,' ' rain,' 'sea,' and ' wave,' are cognate ideas ; hence 

 the Samangs, who are the Negritos of the peninsula of Malacca,, 

 say bat-eao for 'water'; the Motu of New Guinea say medu, 

 'rain,' batu-gu, 'shower'; the Aneityumese in-cau-pda,* ' rain'; 

 New Britain says bata, 'to rain,' ta-va, 'sea'; and the Maori say 

 aw a, ' water.' As a coincidence, it is remarkable that the old 

 high German word awa (cf. the Ger. wasser, Eng. water)means 



* C an is the Fijian tau, 'to fall as rain/ and -pda is the same as 

 the New Britain word bata., 'rain'; au in Samoan is ' a current.' 



