248 
The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. 
[Jan. 
HURU, OR NGAHURU. 
Notes on a Widespread Word denoting Ten, and its many 
Variant Forms in Use throughout the Pacific and Indian 
Ocean Regions. 
By Elsdon Best, Dominion Museum. 
Those acquainted with the Maori tongue are aware that for many years 
past the word commonly employed to denote the number ten is tekau; 
but inquiry has shown that this term was used in pre-European days 
for twenty not only in New Zealand, but also in the isles of Polynesia to 
the northward. The term for ten, as used by the Maori of New Zealand 
in counting, was ngahuru, which, in its variant forms, was so employed 
throughout Polynesia, as also in a number of islands in Melanesia and 
Indonesia, closely allied comparatives being encountered as far off as the 
Philippines and Madagascar. The earlier visitors to New Zealand all give 
ngahuru as the Maori word for ten used in counting. Under this word 
we find in Williams’s Maori Dictionary, 5th edition, the remark, “ This is 
the old word which occurs in nearly every Polynesian dialect, but has now 
under European influence been superseded by tekau .” In the same work 
we find under the word tekau, “ The use of tekau for ten is the result of 
intercourse with Europeans. Before this intercourse tekau was generally 
used for twenty, and ten was designated by ngahuru, the regular Polynesian 
word.” 
In Tregear’s Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary we are told that 
ngahuru was the sacred word for ten in New Zealand ; but little sacredness 
could have pertained to a term that was assuredly in everyday use. We 
know its far-spread use throughout the island system, and that it is given 
by all early voyagers to these isles who collected and recorded the Maori 
numerals. Albeit the spelling of the word is decidedly eccentric in such 
works, yet it can be recognized as an attempt at rendering the Maori 
ngahuru. Thus Cook writes it as angahoora in one list, but as angahourou 
in another, which looks like a Frenchman’s attempt. Banks gives auga- 
hourou, evidently a printer’s error for angahourou, and writes the Tahitian 
form aliuru as ahourou. Parkinson presents the ka ngahuru of Maori 
counting as kacahaowroo —and one can but mercifully hope that the printer 
assisted him in producing this weird form. The same writer renders the 
Tahitian ahum as hoolhoo, thus missing the initial vowel and confusing the 
semi-vowels r and l. Forster (Cook’s second voyage) gives the Maori form 
as anga horro, making two words of it. Captain King’s angahourou was 
probably taken from Cook’s journal. Lieutenant-Grovernor King, who 
visited the northern part of the North Island in 1793, writes it ngahudu, 
thus getting very near the mark, many early writers using d in place of the 
Maori r. Dr. Savage, other early visitor to northern parts, in 1805, gives 
ngahoo-de, wherein he failed to catch the final vowel, unless we owe it to 
that much-condemned printer person, who, as is well known, is a man of 
many sins and few virtues. 
