A DICTIONARY FOR RAROTONGA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 824, 13 May 1955, Page 8

A DICTIONARY FOR RAROTONGA

R_ forty years Stephen Savage, a New Zealander who adopted Rarotonga as_ his country, made a study of the Rarotongan language, customs and legends, much of which he wrote down in a 700-page, closelytyped manuscript. This Dictionary of the Rarotongan Maori Language is now in the hands of the Government Printer, Rarotonga, for publication. To read the Dictionary is to build up, piecemeal, a fascinating picture of Rarotongan life, each word adding another detail-that the back or nape of the neck is.called Katinga-ika, which derives from the custom of killing a fish by biting. it just behind the head, kati meaning’ "to bite"; how a pai, a bed for growing crops like taro, is built with dried coconut leaves to retain the moisture; that papaka-toka means "The Stone" Crab," a _ queer looking creature which lives among the coral in lagoon waters, but at night gives off a phosphorescent glow; that in Polynesian dialect a canoe, vaka; is always referred to as "it" and not as "she." Those back-to-nature exponents who think that Rarotongan life, at least be- * fore the white man came, was simply a : matter of lying on sunny beaches, fishing, and catching coconuts as they fell, will be disillusioned by this dictionary. Apparently some of the evils which plague the white man were not unknown : to the Rarotongan. Look at only a few words selected from the letter "k’": Kai-enua (v): Literally means eater of land; denotes a land thief; land grabber or grabber. Kaiou (n): A word used to denote a debit or credit according to context. Katu-pakiko (n): A bald head. Keia-vaine (n): A term applied to a woman who takes away another woman’s sweetheart or husband. A man stealer. The Dictionary deals at some length ' with the custom of Kava-driking:

"Kava (n): A dioecious shrub which grows to from four to six feet in height, cultivated for the purpose of making a narcotic drink from the roots. . . Generally the method of making this drink (Kava-ata-The Exhilarating Kava) was, in the olden days, by having young girls chew the ‘bruised roots and expectorating the results into wooden bowls. It was diluted with water to proper strength and partaken of with much ceremony. . . The modern method of making Kava (by using a straining cloth) gives a drink of a more narcotic character, the probability being that in the process of chewing, the saliva mixed with the juice and thus neutralised the narcotic properties of the juice to some extent. This drink is said to have a good effect on people who suffer from kidney or bladder.trouble, and is often used for that purpose." Which reminds one of the ancient British belief that cigarette ash is good for the carpet. Nor, apparently, was old Rarotonga without its temperance movement: Nuku-patoi-kava (n): A party of people who object to the consumption of intoxicating liquor. But whether early Rarotongan life was idyllic or not, the white man came. He was called papaa, the word meaning "four layers," which was given to the Europeans who, when first seen, were apparently keeping the heat out with four layers of clothes. With the Papaa came civilisation and the necessity to find new ‘words to express new ideas and name new objects. So we find pu-angiangi, at first meaning the large blood vessels of the body, now picturesquely coming to mean the inner tube of a motor-car tyre. Another word of some interest is Kiore! an interjection sometimes used as a mild insult, its meaning being determined by the intonation of the voice. Rarotongan Maori and New Zealand Maori have some similarities and members of both groups can converse though

with difficulty. The link can be illustrated by the following definition: Po’utukava (n): A shore shrub or tree that grows along the shores near the sea. It is stated in tradition fhat when the large fleet of canoes was about to sail from Rarotonga for Avaiki-tautau (New Zealand) the voyagers held festivals and ceremonials on the sea shore.

During the festival they danced round some Po’utukava trees and declared that when they came to land they would give the first prominent: tree they saw the name "Po’utukava" in memory of their last dance, ~ Stephen Savage, or Tivini, as he was known among his Maori and European associates, was born at Thames in 1873. His father, Valentine Taina, was a quar-ter-caste New Zealand Maori of the Whanau Apanui tribe of east Bay of Plenty, while’ the European branch of the family sprang from an American named Benjamin Savage. As a youth in New Zealand Stephen had a varied career — blacksmith. bandmaster and musician, and gymnastic, instructor at St. Stephen's College, At, 20 to Rarotonga and later ’ me there, In 1991.he Secretary to then Federal Govern‘ment Of the Cook ‘Islands, and continued in the employ of Cook Islands Administration till his death in 21941. The thousand: copies-of the Diction: ary to be printed will be the property of the Department of Island Territories, .and noné can be promised for private sale. They will probably cost about £2. As a dictionary the work has its limi-tations-for instance, cross veference is haphazard, ‘the pronunciation unorthodox, and so, But the imp ant factor which ‘makes it a bac "dictionary, namely, the amount of factual information it contains, ig the very factor which makes it so important a contribution to the study of Cook Islands’ culture.