22 AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIANS. 



days of mourning last, which, with some tribes, are 

 prolonged several months. 



To call the name during these days is regarded as 

 an insult to the deceased. If the deceased has borne 

 the name of an animal, bird, or flower, such an object 

 must be called by some other name during these 

 months. Take, for instance, a case where the dead 

 person has had the name Waa (crow). 



During the days of mourning, it would not do to give 

 the bird that name, lest thereby you pronounce the 

 name of the dead. For the time being, by all mourn- 

 ing friends the bird is called not wati, but narrapart. 



The black cockatoo (wilan) is called waang, the black 

 snake, mowang, is called kundereetch. 



A considerable confusion is occasioned by this strange 

 superstition. The name given the child is not the one 

 by which he will be known in after life When he is 

 admitted to manhood rank in his tribe, he receives an 

 entirely new name; and if his career should be marked 

 by any striking event, he will then receive a name 

 more worthy of him, and his old name will entirely 

 disappear. Nicknames are often given, and the 

 natives are said to be very happy in their effort to 

 choose names that aptly describe eccentricities, pecu- 

 liarities of face or ways of walking or speaking. Many 

 very cruel ceremonies are observed before the young 



