"Bulamakau"

A Tongan Origin Claimed

Letter to the Editor WITH reference to an article in the October issue of the “PIM” contri buted by Mr. H. F. (Bert) Bailey re garding the origin of the South Seas word “Bulamakau,” I wish to refute Mr.

Bailey’s claim. He says that 1868 was the year when cattle were first introduced into Fiji, culminating in the natives nam ing the bull and cow “Bulamakau,” and thus creating the Pidgin name for all kinds of meat.

I would like to direct Mr. Bailey’s mind to the facts of Tongan history. In 1777.

Captain James Cook was on his third visit to the Tongan Islands in the “Reso lution.” Records prove that he had brought livestock for presentation to Tahitians and Tongans as rewards for their hospitality. That was on June 9, 1777. Mr. Bailey may have got confused between Cakobau, Fiji’s king and, Bau, of Tonga, although there are 90 years of difference between these two Ban’s.

According to Tongan history, Captain Cook presented to Bau, Tui Tonga, a bull and a cow; a ram and two ewes to another chief, Maea Linaki; a stallion and a mare to Finau Ulukalala, a Vava’u chief and a friend of Cook.

At this time, there was flourishing com mercial intercourse between Fiji and the Tongan Islands, mostly by ocean-going canoes (Kalia’s). This proves beyond any doubt that the word “Bulu-moe-kau” came from Tonga. The Fijis were known to mariners as the original Savage Islands.

Mr. Bailey’s father, nearly 100 years later, may have introduced cattle into the Fiji Islands. But my argument is that the word was already coined in Tonga.

I am, etc.,

Robert M. (Bunny) Winton Cameron.

(Formerly of Tonga; now resident of Brisbane.)