MUNDARI POETRY, MUSIC AND DANCES. 89 



parents and those junior members of the family who must look up to her as to their own 

 mother. 



In this first stanza temptation sings to her , addressing her by one of those terms 

 of endearment that are so freely used in their songs, uru. The corresponding synonyms 

 are recognizable by the words italicised. 



Bolome nuru bolome! rabanga nuru rabanga. 

 Sorome nuru sorome ! reara nuru reara nairi ! 

 Enter, my chafer, enter ! 'tis cold, chafer, 'tis cold. 

 Dart in, my chafer, dart in ! 'tis chilly, chafer, so chilly ! 



In the next stanza she exclaims with indignation, " How could I enter, how dart 

 in, since in one part of the hut my senior brothers-in-law are seated, and in the 

 other my senior sisters-in-law ? " In other words : " What is the inconvenience of cold 

 and chill to that of breaking the sacred rule handed down by our ancestors ? ' ' 



Here the question naturally arises : Have they then such an abundance of words 

 that they can render any and every idea in two sets of synonymous terms ? Has it 

 not been said that their language is poor rather than rich in words ? Their 

 language is indeed rather poor in words, and yet they find a way out of that 

 difficulty. 



To understand the solution of this apparent paradox, we must here revert to a 

 short consideration of the most fundamental characteristic of their language. In the 

 so-called organic languages words are no longer bare roots ; they are parts of speech, 

 i.e., ready-made, spoken, or written signs which not only denote objects and actions in 

 a very precise manner, but also clearly connote the various ways in which the mind 

 conceives those objects and actions. They are directly denotative of objects and 

 actions, and equally directly connotative of almost every form of abstraction the 

 mind is capable of. In Mundari, on the contrary, we meet mostly with bare roots, 

 not only entirely devoid of the abovementioned connotative power, but also, to a 

 great extent, of any very precise denotation, with words of a very vague signifying 

 power and therefore of great functional elasticity. Whereas they denote objects and 

 actions merely in their widest or vaguest sense, they hardly ever connote, by themselves 

 alone, the precise manner in which the mind may conceive objects and forms of activity. 

 That connotation is left almost entirely to the context of a given sentence and to the 

 circumstances under which it is uttered. The same root or word-form may be used 

 as a concrete or an abstract noun, as an adjective or a verb. Even pronouns, conjunc- 

 tions and interjections may perform the function of a verb ; and vice versa, every one 

 of their twenty-one tense-forms in any of the four voices may resume the function of 

 a noun, an adjective or an adverb. 



It is to this vagueness of signifying power, to this functional elasticity of his words, 

 that the Munda has recourse to produce the number of synonyms he requires for his 

 songs. He even pushes it to extremes which to us may appear sometimes ridiculous 

 and sometimes almost shocking. Provided a word have even but one feature, one 

 element in common with another, he will unhesitatingly use it in a song as a synonym. 



