252 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [Jan. 
Pulu. —This form is in use in Malaysia and the Philippines. In Java 
it appears without any prefix, elsewhere having so or sang a as a prefix. 
< , 7 • , • • ' • ' .'*,*• • • *51 | 
Prefixes. 
Ahum. —In the Society Group we find the shortest possible form of 
prefix in the term ahum. The k and ng sounds have been discarded by 
that dialect since the ancestors of our Maori folk left that region for New 
Zealand. 
Ngahuru .—This form of the far-spread word for ten was employed by 
the Maori of New Zealand and the Maioriori of the Chatham Islands. 
Ngaum. —This variant is peculiar to the Cook Islands, where the aspirate 
has been dropped. In a paper published in volume 11 of the Journal of 
tfie Polynesian Society ,' Mr. J. T. Large tells us that the old term for ten 
in the Cook Group was ngaungauru, a curious and cumbrous form. Takau 
was used for twenty, while thirty was expressed by takau ma (and) 
raungauru , and seventy as e torn (three) takau ma (and) raungauru. 
There is no explanation of the change in the prefix from ngau to raw, 
and one wonders if a misprint has occurred in the case of the former. 
Ngaum is still in use for ten and its multiples. 
Angahuru. —This is reported from Easter Island, but the local term 
there seems to be rendered in three different forms. Cook gave it as 
annahooroo. 
Hang ahum. —This also appears as an Easter Island term in a vocabulary 
in Churchill’s work on that island, while hanahuru is in use at the (southern) 
Mortlock Isles, near the Solomon Group, and at the Tasman Islands, twenty- 
five miles north of Lord Howe Island, also north of the Solomons. The 
form hang ahum was also used on the east coast of the North Island of 
New Zealand, for old men of the Ngati-Awa, Whakatohea, and Tuhoe 
Tribes have stated that, in former times, they used ngahuru for ten, tekau 
for twenty, and that thirty was expressed by tekau ma hangahuru, another 
curious change of prefix. The allied forms hangafulu, sangafulu, and 
sangavulu are met with in the New Hebrides, while sangauru and sangapulu 
are Indonesian variants. (See Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 2, 
p. 89 ; vol. 5, p. 218 ; and Wallace’s Malay Archipelago.) Many of the 
forms closely connected with' hangahuru are found outside the Polynesian 
area. In the account of Cook’s third voyage the Maori term is given 
as angahourou, while the Maioriori, or Mouriuri, of the Chatham Isles 
expressed thirty as tekau mea ngahuru (or was it tekau me angahuru ?) 
Ting ahum. —This variant is a New Zealand form, but it does not appear 
that the prefixed ti has any effect on the value of ngahuru. The following 
example was given by a first-class native authority : “ He ting ahum ma tahi 
nga po i te rerenga mai i Irihia ki Tawhiti-nui ” (Eleven nights were spent in 
sailing from Irihia to Tawhiti-nui). This expression was still in use among 
the Tuhoe Tribe in the closing years of last century. It was also collected 
by Dr. Shortland many years ago. The singahulu of Lord Howe Island, 
sinahuru of the Mortlocks, and sinafulu of Melanesia are perhaps the nearest 
comparatives to this form. In the Rev. Maunsell’s diary (in the Turnbull 
Library, Wellington) appears the term tino ngahuru as a Maori expression 
for ten. It is possible that tingahuru is an abbreviation of this form. 
(Compare the tino angafulu of Samoa.) 
Sinahuru. —Occurs at the Mortlocks, near the Solomon Group ; while 
singahulu is given as in use at the Lord Howe Islands. 
