POLYNESIAN AND MALAYAN. 
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53. Masima salt; Subanu masin id. 
masima Samoa, Tonga, Niué, Uvea, Viti, 
Duke of York. 
te-mosi Rotuma. 
masin Malay, Subanu, Visayan. 
rano-masina Malagasy. 
asin Visayan, Subanu, Bontoc 
Igorot. 
asing Sanguir. 
fau—asina Malagasy. 
This is a remarkably interesting vocable. In the Pacific it occurs 
only in Nuclear Polynesia and is therefore properly to be assigned to 
the Proto-Samoan migration. Just at the gateway to the Pacific we 
find it at the Duke of York, a position sufficient to establish it in the 
Samoa Stream. ‘Therefore the note in Pratt’s Samoan Dictionary 
“from Fiji’? is inaccurate. In Polynesia the stem consonant is m. 
In Indonesia, however, the stem consonant is n. Regarded as pho- 
netic mutation, this variety is well established. Furthermore, our 
Indonesian affiliates disclose the existence of the types asin and masin; 
in fact they exist concurrently in Subanu and Visayan. We therefore 
infer with whole propriety asim to be primal, masin conditional, and 
that a crasis ma—asin has taken place is inferential from the vowel 
quality in Samoan masima. We are now brought so close to another 
group of forms signifying salt, specifically salt water, thence the sea, 
that we are justified at least in noting their presence. One small link 
would establish the chain, namely, the discovery after asin of asi in a 
salt sense. As meaning salt water and sea we find this asz in Ulawa, 
Wango, Fagani, Saa, Alite, Bululaha, all determining stations in the 
Solomon Islands upon the Samoa Stream. Asa conditional derivative 
of asi, noting that we have already observed the parallelism of ma and 
ta, we have tasz in the same sense with fas, tal, taz in series, which 
brings us to the general Polynesian taz of the sea and, in the Tongafiti 
languages, of salt as well, on which see The Polynesian Wanderings, 
page 418. 
54. mata eye, face; Subanu mata eye, mesh, bud. P. W. 380. 
mata Polynesia ubique (except as fol- | matat Silong. 
low) in the sense of eye, | matara  Ahtiago, Alfuros. 
face, point, edge, mesh, | matalalin Wahai. 
source, any small object, to | matanina Gah. 
see. matacolo Teluti. 
maka Hawaii. matava Batumerah. 
mafa, maf Rotuma. matoh Baliyon. 
matan Ahtiago. 
mata Visayan, Bontoc Igorot, Kayan, | maten Dayak. 
Sulu, Savu, Ilocano, Taga- | matin ‘Teor. 
log, Pampangas, Baju, Bou- | mat Kar Nicobar. 
ton, Sanguir, Liang, Wahai, | maa Ceram. 
Togean, Salayer, Menado, | makan Kisa. 
Bolanghitam, Morella, La- | mut Mysot. 
riko, Saparua, Caimarian, | mucha Tagalog. 
Malay, Macassar, Awaiya, | muka Java. 
Ceram. muguing Ilocano. 
matsha Central Nicobar. mua Madura. 
matada Matabello. maso Malagasy. 
The complete concord of the Polynesian is strangely offset by the 
variety in Indonesia. ‘There is quite as much variety in Melanesia also, 
but in this place it is not necessary to include that material. In the 
