ORIGIN, AS TRACED BY THE LANGUAGE. 183 
niu ol the Brumer isles, signifies the tree producing milk, u 
being milk, that is, the true cocoa nut. But it is reasonable 
to suppose that we should find other proofs of their search 
after food, and we have them. Uwhi or m/j, the yam of the 
South Sea Islands, is given to a small one that is indigenous 
to New Zealand, and to the root of a fern, which is also 
edible, and slightly resembling in form the yam. The uri, 
the fruit of the kiekie ; the largest New Zealand fruit, is also 
the name ot the bread fruit. The ti, (dracena Australis,) is a 
name common to all the isles; it produces a long fleshy tap root 
like a carrot, and was formerly much used as food. Nearly all 
the names of edible substances are identical with those of the 
islands. The taro, the kumara, the hue, many of the trees 
which resemble those of the isles they left, bear the same 
names ; thus we have the aka, the liutu, mai, miro, rata, and 
wau. Poi is the New Zealand word for a ball, this in Tahaiti 
is also the name of the bread fruit when made up into balls. 
This valuable fruit is not known in the colder climate of New 
Zealand, but the word remains. 
The pigeon bears two names, the kuka and kukupa, which 
are common to the isles ; so also is that of the ruru (owl). The 
only animals there known have similar names: kiore (rat) and 
kuri (dog). The kuku (muscle), a shell-fish universally eaten, 
is generally known by the same name. But it is not necessary 
to carry this list of identical names further ; it applies to 
plants, stones, insects, implements, manners, customs, mytho¬ 
logy, gods, in fact to everything, for the language itself is 
radically the same, and clearly shows that the Polynesians 
form one grand family. And whilst it is evident, from the 
greater or less variation existing, of the more recent or 
remote connection of one with another, it does not diminish 
the probability of their having had a common origin. 
There is another word which we seem to recognize in the 
Turkish hookah, which is the same in substance, I believe, 
with the meerschaum and ecume de mere; liuka is the New 
Zealand word for the froth of the sea. When the New Zea¬ 
landers arrived, they then saw snow for the first time, which 
to them would appear more like the froth of the sea than any- 
