442 SIDNEY H. RAY. 
sister, uncle, aunt, parents, and wife. Ponape naz is the a of 
Hawaii, and possesses a narrower range of service. It refers to 
children, to servants, to trees and their fruits, to certain imple- 
’ ments of work, and also to things which are highly prized. The 
two pronouns stand thus in wide contrast, and may be thus illus- 
trated : In what may be called the “stone and shell age” of this 
people, the possession of a piece of iron hoop was of more worth 
than its weight in gold ; and one getting possession of a knife, that 
was a treasure indeed, at once addressed it as nai kapit, my knife, 
but his wife at his side, a piece of property he could pick up at 
any time or anywhere was addressed as ai paut, my wite. 
We need not further illustrate this point, we only refer to it to 
show how fully this idea of the different shade of things has 
possessed the Ponape mind. It is as strong with him as with the 
Hawaiian. But while the Hawaiian lets the preposition bear the 
the office of expressing the “shade of difference,” the Ponapean 
has passed it on to the personal pronoun. 
We may perhaps say here all that is needed to be said on the 
prefixed pronoun of the Hawaiian. It is simply the inferior 
brought to the front, made to face about and take a new position; 
he aina.o’u, the land of mine; he kapa o’u, the cloth of mine 
become ko’u aina, my land; ko’w kapa, my cloth. 
Now as we have intimated above in the remarks on nai and a, 
Ponape possesses the same order, sometimes a prefix, sometimes 4 
suffix. But the change cannot be so fully made as in the Hawaiian, 
for certain articles are restricted to either the suffix or prefix, but 
apart from this the idea is the same. 
[The distinction made between nouns when used with the 
possessive pronoun, or rather the difference made in the pronouP 
when used with certain nouns, though obscure in the Ponape and 
Hawaiian may be clearly understood by reference to the Melanesian 
languages. In these certain nouns are used with a pronouD suf- 
fixed, others require a particular form of possessive word to be 
used with them, and the latter can always be shown to consist of 
