Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/235

 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 205 or definite sense, " the one " or " one only," " the two " or " two only," etc. ; something like the Greek monas, duas, and their compeers. The definites or collectives are the cardinals wholly or partially redupli- cated. Finally, by the use of the prefix vaka with the cardinals, Fijian furnishes itself with numeral adverbs equivalent to the English " once," "twice," "thrice," and that wdth a completeness and a consistency, which neither the Latin, nor the Greek, nor the Sanscrit itself can rival.

The doctrine of the verb in Fijian is large and complex. Its root form is always either monosyllabic or dissyllabic. The sources from which the derived verbs spring, as in other languages, are various. Substantives and adjectives, however, are the classes of words, which yield the bulk of them. Some are formed by adding na to a noun; thus, from buka, " fuel," comes huTcana, " to add fuel." Others, like cata, " to hate," are made from adjectives, by appending the syllable ta, or, which is more common, by at once prefixing vaka and adding taka. What is most observable, however, in the Fijian verb is the pe- culiar manner in which it sets forth to the eye and ear the different ideas expressed by words of this class, whether considered in them- selves, or in their syntactical relations to other words. The notions which the English expresses by such terms as "lie," "sleep," "rest," on the one hand, and by such as "consider," "strive," " walk," on the other, are essentially unlike; yet the language makes no external dis- tinction between the two classes. It is otherwise in Fijian ; for verbs of the latter order, which imply voluntary action, though to the exclu- sion of an object, are usually reduplicate in form, while those of the former are for the most part simple roots. Again, it is sometimes the case in English that neuter verbs are used with a substantive after them; thus, we say, " He sits his horse well," making "sit" to govern "horse," though naturally incapable of exercising such a power. With few exceptions, however, when we wish to indicate any relation between a verb of this sort and an object noun, we employ a preposition. The Fijian does not commonly adopt the latter method. On the other hand, it can give all its unreduplicated neuters a transitive force by appending to them certain formative particles. On this principle mocera is " to sleep upon," from moce, "to sleep; "qalva is "to swim to," from qalo, "to swim; " and droiaki is "to flee from," from dro, "to flee." Further, a distinction in the use of verbs transitive prevails in Fijian, which is perhaps without a parallel in any other tongue. In their simple form they require that the nouns they govern shall stand im- mediately after them without the intervention of an article or other word, and they represent actions in an indeterminate and general man-