HOME LIFE OF THE AFRICAN. 



103 



Most noticeable are the frequent coincidences (as in Bible history) 

 between the meaning of the names and the subsequent character 

 developed in the child. 



All names of persons mean something. Perhaps the name of 

 some animal connected with the family fetish, e. g.,. Njaku (Ele- 

 phant) or Njiwu (Wild Deer) ; or some wish or hope of the parents, 

 e. g., Oyonguno (Remembrance). 



Often two or three names are given; the official one by the 



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PECULIAR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 



father, the pet one by the mother, and where there are foreign neigh- 

 bors, an English one — an empty compliment to some missionary or 

 trader, as a basis on which to ask gifts for their "name-child." 



Generally all these names are subsequently dropped by the 

 child itself, who then takes a new one of its own choosing, as a 

 recognition of emerging into young manhood or womanhood. 



On marriage, the husband sometimes ignores all these names, 

 and gives a new and often complicated name of his own invention. 



