Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/35

 INTEODUCTION. XXV

miserably poor as to be without a word of its own for ' one.' The blacks of Santo are a frizzly-haired negroid race ; I therefore argne, from the evidence of this word, that these blacks and our blacks have, in some way, one common origin.

I next take you to another Papuan region having a negroid population — a group of islands off the east end of New Guinea and consisting of New Britain, New Ireland, and some others. In the Duke of York Island there, I find the following words, all akin to wakul, viz., makala, 'for the 'first' time' mara, ma- ra-kam, 'forthe 'first' time,' marua, 'tobear fruit for the 'first' time, to enter on a new course, to begin,' mara, 100 (= the 'beginning' of a new reckoning), muka, 'first,' muka-na, 'first-' born son,' muka-tai, 'first,' mun, 'to go first.'* In all these, the rootis ma, mu, asin Australia, and the abundance of these derived forms in this Tukiok language proves that the root is indigenous, not borrowed. Among them I observe mara, 'for the ' first ' time,' and mara, 100, and this is exactly the Tasmanian word (mara- wa) for 'one'; another of them is muka, 'first,' and this word, by dropping the k, which is neverf sounded in Samoan, becomes the Samoan niua, 'first,' and mua-ulu, 'thefore-head.':j: Mua also is very common in Samoan (as in f oe-mua, 'the 'first' or stroke oar,' a-fiia, 'to begin'), and thus proves itself to be native to the language. Further, you may have observed that some of the Australian words for 'one' are mo, mata. AVith mo compare the Santo word mo-ig,'to begin,' — another proof that the Santoans and the Australians are kinsmen; with mata compare the Motu word mata-ma, 'abeginning,' and mata-mata, 'new,' 'fresh'; theFijiau matai, 'first,' and tau-mada 'before-hand'; the Maori ti-mata, 'to begin'; the Samoan a-mata, 'to begin'; the New Britain a-ma-na, 'before, in front,' mata-na, 'the front,' biti-na 'the commencement'; the Motu badi-na, 'origin,' andthe Aneit- yumese ni-mti-din, 'the front'; with mu compare the Fijian vuna, 'to begin,' and the New Britain wa-vuua, 'to begin,' and the Santo mul, 'a chief,' as being the 'first' man. All these I

t The one solitary exception is puke, 'catch you'! — a child's play- word. + An uncommon form of the root ba is va ; and from it the Mangaians (Hervey Islands) say va-ri, 'a beginning'; but in the Koiari dialect of New Guinea this same word means 'the forehead,' 'the face.' This word thus illustrates the procession of meanings from the root pra (para), pro, 'before'; for vari is equivalent to 'that which is before,' hence 'a beginning,' 'the forehead' as the 'front' part of tlie human body, 'the face ' ; it also throws some light on the derivation of frons, which has so puzzled Latin etymologists that some of them derive it from the Greek ophrus, 'the eyebrow'! The Motumotu dialect of New Guinea says hali, instead of vari, for 'forehead'; sevei'al other dialects there say i-piri-ti, paru, para-na, pira-na, for 'face'; these are all connected with the Dravidian pira, 'before.' The Brahui of Afghanistan says mun, ' the face,' which is the same word as the Tamil, mun, ' before.'
 * Compare with this the Tamil postposition mun, 'before.'

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