Numerals.

Of these terms the first nine are still used, but the word ngahuru is no longer employed in counting, being replaced by the term tekau, which latter appears to have been used in pre-European times to denote twenty—but of which more anon.

To the above terms various prefixes are applied. When using any of these expressions for numbers in conversation, or when enumerating articles, the term ko is prefixed to the first, which thus becomes kotahi. From two to nine inclusive the prefix is e. To ngahuru no prefix is applied as a cardinal, but as an ordinal tua is so employed: tua-ngahuru = tenth. Tekau, the modern term for ten, never bears a prefix, the ordinal being expressed by the use of the definite article: te tekau = the tenth. Thus we have the cardinal numbers as follows

as used in Maori. These terms are often used when counting. But an ancient, and more correct, style of actual enumeration is by prefixing ka to the numerals. Probably, however, ka is not a true prefix in this case: for my own part, I do not so regard it. In Williams's Maori Dictionary we find “ka = a verbal particle, denoting the commencement of a new action or condition, or a state of things new to the speaker.” Here we have the key to the matter—in this wise: when, in counting a number of articles, a person says “ka wha,” the expression means that that number is attained, the counted