THROUGH HAWAII. 
37 
Norn. O wai ia aina ?—What that land ? 
Ans. O Hawaii:—Hawaii. 
Pos. No hea oe ?—Of whence you ? 
Ans. No Hawaii:—Of or belonging to Hawaii. 
Obj. Hoe oe i hea ?—Sailing you to where ? 
Ans. I Hawaii : —To Hawaii. 
Mai hea mai oe ?—From whence you ? 
Ans. Mai Hawai mai:—From Hawaii. 
In pronouncing the word Ha-wai-i, the Ha is sounded 
short as in Hah, the wai as wye, and the final i as e 
in me. 
Atooi in Cook’s voyages, Atowai in Vancouver’s, 
and Atoui in one of his contemporaries, is also a com¬ 
pound of two words, a Tauai, literally, and Tauai. 
The meaning of the word tauai is to light upon, or to 
dry in the sun ; and the name, according to the account 
of the late king, was derived from the long droughts 
which sometimes prevailed, or the large pieces of timber 
which have been occasionally washed upon its shores. 
Being the most leeward island of importance, it was 
probably the last inquired of, or the last name repeated 
by the people to the first visitors. For should the 
natives be pointed to the group, and asked the names 
of the different islands, beginning with that farthest to 
windward, and proceeding west, they would say, O 
Hawaii, Maui, Ranai, Morotai, Oahu a (and) Tauai: 
the copulative conjunction preceding the last member 
of the sentence, would be placed immediately before 
Tauai; and hence, in all probability, it has been attach¬ 
ed to the name of that island, which has usually been 
written, after Cook’s orthography, Atooi; or Atowai , 
after Vancouver. 
