NEGRO NAMES. 
233 
week on which the individual was horn, 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. 
Male. Female. 
Sunday - - Quashe (Cooa-she) - - Quasheba (Cooa-she-ba) 
Monday - - Cudjo (Coo-jo) - - Joba ([Coo]-jo-ba) 
Tuesday - - Cubena (Coo-bena) - B^naba ([Coo]-bena-ba) 
Wednesday - Quacco (Cooa-co) - - Cooba ([Cooa]-co-ba) 
Thursday - Quao (Cooa-o) - - A'bba ([Coo]-a-ba) 
Friday - - Cuffee (Coo-fee) - - Feeba ([Coo]-fee-ba) 
Saturday- - Quamin ( Cooa-min) - Mim'ba ([Coo]-niin-ba). 
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. muso, 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 
jattemusOi a lioness. (Macbrair’s Grammar of the 
Mandingo Language.) 
