Note 16 — PREFACE. (continued 4)

Amama; ua noa, the usual ending of prayers is equivalent to our Amen, though scholars differ in its literal translation. A treatise by Fornander on the phrase has the following: “The prayers of the Hawaiian priests, offered in the temples, as well as those offered at private sacred places, or in family worship, invariably closed with the ejaculation Amama, equivalent to Amen. Amama, as a verb, means ‘to offer in sacrifice.’ It does not occur in any other Polynesian dialect that I am acquainted with.… I therefore consider it to be a foreign word imported into the language in far remote times.… It was a formula employed on occasions of worship in imitation of his teachers, but without any inherent sense derived from his own language, as multitudes of Christians today use the word Amen without knowing its origin or sense. That the Hawaiians employed Amama as a verb, ’to offer in sacrifice’ I look upon as a later adaptation when the primary sense of the word, if ever known, had been forgotten.” His note on the phrase Amama, ua noa, in Pol. Race, Vol. II, p. 178, says: “Literally it means ‘it is offered, the tabu is taken off, or the ceremony is ended.’ ” ↑