NEGRO NAMES. 



233 



week on which the individual was born, and being, as 

 they doubtless are, heathen and African in their 

 origin, they afford an interesting illustration of a 

 weekly division of time among Pagan nations. 



An infant born on a Sunday would be named if a 

 male, Quashe, if a female, Quasheba, and so on, each 

 sex receiving a name proper and peculiar to each day 

 of the week according]: to the following table. 



It thus appears that the affix " ba " is a mark of 

 the feminine gender, while the prefix " Coo " or 

 "Qua" (Cooa) is, less exclusively, a masculine 

 distinction. These grammatical niceties indicate a 

 language of considerable regularity. 



In the Mandingo language, so extensively spoken 

 among the negroes of West Africa, we are informed 

 by Mr. Macbrair that '* no distinction of gender, in 

 so far as regards the termination of words, is known. 

 Only one distinguishing word is used, viz. onuso, a 

 woman, or female ; thus from dingo, a child, comes 

 dinke {ding-keo), a male child or a son, and ding-muso^ 

 a female child or a daughter." So jatto, a lion, makes 

 jattemuso, a lioness. (Macbrair's Grammar of the 

 Mandingo Language.) 



