_one_ pacha hets par-ai chas.
_two_ lo he-luk par-roo lu-ete.
_three_ kuu he-yen par gen kun-ete.
_four_ thack po-bits par-bai ek-ete.
_five_ thabumb nim pa-nim tibi.
_six_ lo-acha nim-wet par-ai chb-lemen.
_seven_ lo-alo nim-weluk par-roo luen-gemen.
_eight_ lo-kunn nim-weyen par-gen kun-engemen.
_nine_ lo-thack nim-pobit par-bai ske-ngemen.
_ten_ te-bennete pain-duk pa-nim lue-ipe.
[Footnote 29: Or Erronan. The Nuia or Immer numerals are the same.]
Mr. Abraham's Mallicolo represents the same language with the Mallicolo
vocabulary of Captain Cook's Voyages, with which it pretty closely
agrees.
His Erromango is more peculiar. _Sikai_ = six = the Mallicolo _sukai_,
which is, itself, nearly the _sikai_ = one. The -_ring_ in suku-_ring_,
too, is the Mallicolo _rima_. This we know, from the analogies of
almost all the languages of Polynesia and the Indian Archipelago, to
be the word _lima_ = _hand_. Hence e-_rima_ (Mallicolo), _hand_, and
suku-_ring_ (Erromango) = _one hand_. The _vat_ in menda-_vat_ is the
Mallicolo -_bats_ in e-_bats_, the Malay am-_pat_ = _four_. Du-_ru_ is
the Mallicolo e-_ry_, there being in each case a prefixed syllable. The
analysis of _tesal_ and _saitavan_ is less clear. Neither is it certain
how _ngaraodlen_ = _ten_. The other numerals are compounds. This,
perhaps, is sufficient to show that the difference between the numerals
of the Mallicolo and Erromango is a difference of a very superficial
kind. So it is with the Tana, Fotuna, and the first Uea specimens. We
must always remember that the first syllable is generally a non-radical
prefix.
In the Tana of the preceding table, the words for 6, 7, 8, 9, and
10, seem to be merely the words for 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 repeated, and
something of the same kind appears in the first Uea. Perhaps the
representation may be imperfect. At any rate the Tanna of Cook's Voyage
runs--