thirty years' residence amongst them; a knowledge of which may in some small degree assist those who have undertaken the solution of this very interesting problem.
It may help to render my paper more intelligible, if I state briefly what Mr. Gladstone calls the stages of the historical development of the colour-sense.
The starting point is an absolute blindness of colour in the primitive man.
The First stage attained is that at which the eye becomes able to distinguish between red and black.
In the Second stage, the sense of colour becomes completely distinct from the sense of light; both red and yellow, with their shades, are clearly discerned.
In the Third stage, green is discernible.
In the Fourth and last stage an acquaintance with blue begins to emerge.
What stage had the colour-sense of the Maori reached before intercourse with Europeans began? This can readily be ascertained by reference to the terms existing in the language at that date, for giving expression to the sense of colour.
We find, upon examination, that the language possessed very few words that conveyed to the mind an idea of colour, apart from the object with which the particular colour was associated. There are only three colours for which terms exist, namely, white, black, and red.
White, ma (sometimes tea—very limited application).
Black, pouri, pango, mangu.
Red, whero, kura, ngangana.
If we analyse these words they seem all to relate to the presence or absence of sunlight. Ma is doubtless a contraction for Marama, light, which is derived from Ra, the sun. Pouri, black, is derived from Po, night. The derivation of pango and mangu is not so apparent, but I venture to think that both whero and kura may be traced to Ra. Ma is not only the term for whiteness and clearness, but also for all the lighter tints of yellow, grey, and green. Grey hair is called hina, but the term was never used to designate anything else but hair; every other grey object was either ma or pango, as it inclined to a lighter or darker shade.
To express blackness three terms exist, pouri, pango, and mangu. The night was pouri, and any very dark tint might be expressed by the same word. Pouri and Marama were constantly used to express opposite mental conditions. Pango and mangu were applied indiscriminately to describe anything black; the former word seems to approach closely to a true colour
