250 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [Jan. 
Then comes the remark, “ Ca-te-cow \ka tekau ] signifies one ten.” 
After which comes ma-ta-hie (ma tahi = and one), eleven, &c., on to 
Ma-Ew-ha (ma iwa = and nine), nineteen. Then twenty is Ca-te-cow , 
Ca, du-o ” (ka tekau ha rua = two tekau or the second tekau). Thirty 
is given (in corrected spelling) as ka tekau ka toru , forty as ka tekau 
ka wha, and so on. Further quotation is unnecessary. 
In this case it is clear that the recorder heard natives counting or 
repeating the above terms. In giving the digits he does not record the 
verbal particle ka, used by a Maori when actually counting a number of 
objects, but he does so in the case of the tally cry for ten, and in the 
multiples of ten. Here again we see ngahuru employed for ten in actual 
counting, after which tekau is used as a tally cry to show that one tally of 
ten is completed. Tekau is not used to denote eleven, which is represented 
by the words ma tahi ( — and one). Nineteen is ma iwa (— and nine), 
then comes the tally call for twenty without any repetition of ngahuru . 
But a few early recorders, including Cook, give ma ngahuru (= and ten) 
as the expression employed to denote twenty in counting. This is sup¬ 
ported by Lee and Kendall’s Grammar, published in 1820, which gives 
ngahuru as used for ten in counting, then gives the tally call “ Ka tekau 
kotahi. Numerals counted once, or ten.” Twenty is given as ma ngahuru 
(and ten), when comes again the tally “ Ka tekau ka rua (making two 
tekau). Numerals counted twice, or twenty.” It also gives in another table 
the form now employed— kotahi tekau for ten, rua tekau for twenty, &c.-— 
which none of the earlier recorders refer to, and which can scarcely 
have been heard by them or they would have noted it. This tends to 
show that a person counting may have employed this mode of expressing 
twenty, after which he would note the tally, ka tekau kotahi if counting 
in scores, ka tekau ka rua if counting in tens. This early evidence, as given 
above, shows that ngahuru was used for ten in counting, and that tekau 
was sometimes used for the lesser tally of ten. Abundant evidence also 
shows that tekau was often used to denote the greater tally of twenty, 
and this practice was knowm in the north, which led to the confusion in 
Nicholas’s notes on Maori numeration. The late Mr. John White has a 
note in his unpublished MS. concerning the occasional use of tekau as 
a tally call (only) for ten. Since the coming of Europeans the Maori has 
entirely ceased to use tekau for twenty, as it is employed in Polynesia,, 
and uses it to replace ngahuru in counting. It may here be noted that 
the fact that the Maori formerly employed both the single and binary 
methods of numeration does not tend to simplify matters in any inquiry 
into his mode of counting. 
The list of Maori numerals published in Burns’s narrative in 1844 was 
evidently taken from the work of Nicholas, and hence calls for no further 
remark here. 
The Word “ Ngahuru ” : Its Variant Forms and Wide Range. 
Allowing for many forms of prefixes, it seems clear that the rootstock 
of this term for ten is huru, fulu, or pulu ; other forms, such as uru , ulu , 
hulu, furu, vulu, folo, jmlo, and turu, are probably variants ; or at least we 
may say that the u-u form is the most persistent. The use of the simple 
root form to express ten is confined to a few lands ; some form of prefix 
is usually employed, and the number of variant forms of such prefixes is 
startling. 
