44 SISSANO. 
Next we shall consider the second element of major variety in this 
stem, the only remaining variant in the Polynesian group, the mutable 
vowel which precedes the nua element. In the Polynesian we find 
this mutation confined within the series a—e-o. In the Melanesian 
material we discover the great bulk of the mutation within this series, 
but with two somewhat widely separated centers in which we encounter 
the 1 type. We note the a series, 1-4, 12-17, 21-24, 28-29, 34-35, 
38-43. Similarly the e series, 5-7, 18-19, 36-37, 44; then the o series, 
8-11, 25-27, 32-33. [he new material which Melanesia introduces, 
the 1 series, occurs in 20 Fagani finua of northern Melanesia but 
clearly associable with the type fanua, and 30-31 bina, biné of the 
eastern Bismarck Archipelago. 
In the Polynesian series we have noted that the nua element is 
subject to no alteration in form; it appears as a constant element. 
This is by no means the case in Melanesia; the changes offer an inter- 
esting study and their systematic evolution is essential to the establish- 
ment of the continuity of the stem. The nua element remains without 
alteration in 1, 5, 8, 12, 14, 18, 20, 21, 22, 28, 34, 36,30, 4070" 
The consonantal element n is but scantily altered; it is almost 
continuous throughout the series. In 22 we have pangua with the 
n—-ng mutation, which also appears in 29 bang. In 26 and 27 the 
correlated forms poén and poém seem to fall into grouping with 
25 pon. If this be admitted we have the n—m mutation. ‘This muta- 
tion is excessively rare; in a much wider comparison of Melanesian 
material (The Polynesian Wanderings, 135) I have discovered but a 
single instance and that extremely doubtful; of the converse m—n 
mutation there is better proof (zbid., 136). We are, therefore, without 
solution of the two forms here involved. 
Of the vowel mutation of this element the simplest form is that 
in nue, one readily comprehensible. This occurs twice; in 2 vanue 
and in 37 henue, in central and northern Melanesia respectively; 
15 faneu central Carolines is Micronesian and outside our present 
limits, yet it is readily explicable as fanue after metathesis, a not 
infrequent modifier. Of the same simple type is nuo. ‘This also 
occurs twice, in 6 venuo of central Melanesia and 35 hanuo of the 
eastern Bismarck Archipelago. A more remote modification, yet 
which seeks to retain the three units of nua, is 11 vonio, which can 
not be considered apart from 9 and 10, with which it forms a dialectic 
group. 
The next mutation group is formed by abrasion of the final nua 
vowel, thus reducing the element to two units instead of three. We 
find this new and degraded element nu in 3, 16, 17, 19, 23, 24, 32, 42. 
Taking nu as a new base, we find mutants as follows: no in 9, 10, 
13, 43,45; nein 7, 31, and possibly in 44 éne of the Marshalls, Microne- 
sian, and therefore beyond our scope; na in 30 and 33. 
