ETHNOLOGY OF THE rSDO-PAClFiC ISLANDS. 



155 



bet) in which t isevitlently the definitive or consonantal augment, 

 the forms me^ myc^ ma^ men also occurring. The root, is also 

 found reduplicated in Yukahiri, meme, and the Gbukchi inantaak 

 appears to be connected with the broad Samoiede forms. The 

 Koriak wal-charat has the same term in its first rletnent. 



These broad N, E. Asian ftjrras appear to be also related to the 

 third Dravirian term manci Turn., mane Karn. Like the other 

 Di-avirian terms tboy are alao found in the SemilJco-Afrtcan 

 family, mana Galla. The Sanskrit halai **a hall'', which ii found 

 in Asonesia with the same meaning, and also with that of "house", 

 which it has even in Polynesian^— fale, fae, mare, vale — and Mi- 

 cronesia — phiye (Pelew), — is a cognate term. 



To the ^emilioo-Africau form buyith, bait, batti, miUe and the 

 Dravirian ?ida, &e., the Iranian vish Sanek., bati^ hasa-sthan, nibaa 

 Bengali, baati village'* Hindi, are allied. 



inON, SILVKU, 



The African affiaititiS uf the Dravirian word for '^'iroti*'' are the 

 closest j and as the common Dravirian word for '^silver" vili, bili, 

 is also a Semitico- African term both for ''silver" and "iron," the 

 Dravirian words for the latter may safely be placed in tlie same 

 class of relations. The eastern prevalence of the Ilimyariiic form 

 hldt is evinced by the Indonesian pil«/f, pera/t silver** (ber is 

 a prevalent Caucaso-African form of ibe root). But the Dravirian 

 term does not appear to be of similar recent derivaiion. It has 

 not the Semitic postfix, and in some of the nortlu^rn languages of 

 India tlie root occurs in other forms amel Abor, Miri, mil, mul 

 Milchanan^, mul Tiberkad. 



The same root, primarily meaning while," 'Might," "bright" 

 &c., has been applied to "silver" "moon," "sun," "slat's," "Ere," 

 and to "iron," "gold" and other metals. The direct application 

 of the qualitive "white" to silver baa been twofold. The primary 

 one was to call the moon by the name" white." When that name 

 had become a generic substantive for metal, the same root or a 

 different one was, in some languagfS, again attached tolha primary 

 fwrra ai mere qnalitive, "white-metal." Hence the various forma 

 and applications in which the root is found in the Dravirian 

 languages do not necessarily belong to tho same era. 



The Di-avirian term for "vvhiie" is velliya, veltula, bile, biligr. 



