Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/41

 rS'TEODirCTIOX. XXXI

Ne^v Britain says bata, 'to rain,' ta-va, 'sea,' and the Maori say awa, 'water.' As a coincidence, it is remarkable that the old high Grerman word awa {cf. the Ger. wasser, Eug. water) means 'water,' and bedu is quoted as an old Phrygio-Macedoniau word meaning ' water.'

Some observers have remarked that our blacks soon master the dialects spoken b7other tribes, and have ascribed this to a natural readiness in learning languages. But the present inquiry shows that there is another cause for this. A man or woman of the Sydney tribe, which said ba-du for 'water,' would easily recognize ba-na in an adjacent tribe as the same word, the termination only being different, just as it is not hard for Englishmen to re- member that the German wasser is water, and that brennen means burn. 80 also, a Ivamalarai black, who says mu-ga, would soon know the Wiradhari mu-pai; and elsewhere mat a, 'one,' is not much different from meta and matata for 'one,' or even from the Tasmanian mar a.

Results. — Ba, ma, mo, am, ap are forms of an original root meaning 'water,' 'that wdiich is liquid and flows'; derived forms are mi, me, tea; from ba comes the Sydney word ha-clu, 'water'; the du here is a suffix in Dravidian also, and exists in the New Guinea word ba-tu, elsewhere ba-ta; the Samang Negritos say bat- eao ; the old language of Java has banii, 'water,' where the n has the liquid sound of (jn, and takes the place of d in the suffix du. Erom all this it is clear that our Australian badu is of good and ancient lineage.

(i.) In the Maitland district of New Soutb Wales a ' blind ' man is called boko; in Polynesia poko is 'blind,' or, more fully, mata-poko, mata-po, 'eyes-blind.' As there can be no suspicion of borrowing here, how is so striking a resemblance to be accounted for? Do you say that it is a mere coincidence? AVell, if so, let us examine the matter. In the Ivamalarai region, (see map) mu-ga means 'blind,' and in the Mudgee district, mu-pai is 'dumb'; in Santo (New Hebrides), mog-moga is 'deaf; in Erromanga, another island of that group, busa is 'dumb' ; in Eiji, bo-bo is 'blind'; in Duke of York Island, ba-ba is 'deaf; in Sanskrit, mu-k a is 'dumb'; in Greek, mu-dos, mu-tis is 'dumb,' Lat. mut-us. In Keltic, bann is 'to bind, tie,' balbh is 'dumb,' and bodhar is 'deaf.' Now, there can be little doubt that in all these words the root is the same (mu, mo ; ba, bo, bu; po), and yet these words extend over a very wide area indeed, from Tahiti rii;'ht across through India to Greece, Italy, and even to John o' Groat's. The meanings are ' blind,' ' deaf,' ' dumb,' and yet the root is the same. The general root-meaning which suits them all is 'to close,' ' to bind' ; this meaning shows itself in the Greek verb mu-G — from which mudos comes —
 * to close the eyes or mouth,' and in the Sanskrit mu, 'to bind';

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