Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/39

 IKTBODUCTIOX. 5X1X

remains is bul, 'two'; there also um, for mu. is 'and'; in the other islands it is ma, mo. In New Britain, bal-et is 'again,' bul-ug, 'again,' 'also,' 'another,' mule, 'again,' biila, ' another,' ' an additional one ' (cf. ma, ' and '), bula, ka-bila, ' also' (with -bila c/! Tasm. pia), muru, 'to follow.' In Samoan, muli is 'to follow,' f o'i is ' also,' ulu-ga (for f ulu-) is a ' couple.' The Fijian has tau-muri, 'behind ' in the sense of ' following,' just as tau-mada in Fijian means 'first' or 'before.' The Malay- has ulang, 'to repeat,' and pula, 'again, too, likewise.' In some of the Himalayan regions, to which a portion of the aboriginal inhabitants of India was driven bj the Aryan invasion, buli, pli, bli means ' four,' that is, as I suppose, ' two-twos,' — a dual form of ' two.'

It seems to me that the Dravidian words maru, 'to change,' muru, 'to turn,' muri, 'to break in two,' are from the same root as bula, and that root is to be found in Aryan words also, such as Lat. mu-to, mu-tu-us; for there is a Sk. root ma, ' to change.' It is known that the Sanskrit dvi, dva, ' two,' gives the Greek dis (for dvis), 'twice,' and the adjective diss os, ' double,' and that dvi s gives the Latin bis; but the Sk. dva also gives the Grothic twa, 'other,' 'different,' and the Eug. twain, 'two,' as well as words for 'two' in many languages. Hence I think that our root bu, b a, gives the Samoan vae-g a ' a division,' vaega-lerau, ' the half,' and other words ; because Avben people are 'at one' on any subject they are agreed, but when they are at 'twos and threes' they are divided in opinion ; and in the same sense sense I would connect the Lat. divide with the Sk. root dvi. Probably the Latin varius and the English variance are connected with the root ba in that same sense.

I would only add a line to say that our blackfellows use the word bula also to mean 'many.' I do not believe that this is the same word as bula, 'two.' I consider it to come from the same root as the Sanskrit pulu, puru, ' many,' and that root, under the form of par, pi a, pie, plu, has ramifications all through the Aryan languages in the sense of ' fill, full, much, more,' &c. The eastern form of this root gives, in New Britain, bula,' more,' mag,' many,' b u k a, ' full ' ; in Motu, b a d a is ' much,' and hutu-ma, 'many,' ' multitude '; in Aneityum, a-lup-as (lup=plu), 'much'; in Fiji, vu-ga, ' many'; in Duke of York Island, bu-nui, 'to increase.' In Dravidian, pal is 'many,' pal-gu, ' to become many, to multiply, to increase.' It thus ap- pears that the Australian bula, 'many,' has kindred, not only in Melanesia and the Dekkan, but also all through the Aryan region.

Results. — The root is hu, which denotes ' repetition,' ' change,' and this is the idea which resides in the Hebrew numeral ' two,' and in the Latin alter, ' second '; another, but cognate, idea for

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