Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And Overland From Adelaide To King George's Sound In The Years 1840-1: Sent By The Colonists Of South Australia By Eyre, Edward John
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Even Among The Adelaide Tribes, Where There Appears To Be A Greater
Uniformity In The System Of Nomenclature Than I Have Met With Any Where
Else, And Where Mr. Moorhouse Has Devoted More Time And Attention To The
Subject Than Perhaps Any Other Person, There Are Still Difficulties And
Uncertainties.
Thus an Adelaide boy about the age of ten, is called by
the name of Koar (the crow), from early infancy, but between ten and
twelve, after undergoing one of their ceremonies, the name was changed to
Mannara, (which I believe means the crow's nest).
According, however, to
the usual system adopted, this boy's name ought to have remained Koar,
until, by becoming a married man and a father, it gave way to a
paidronymic.
There is another subject somewhat analogous to that of nomenclature, and
about which still less is known; - that of every native adopting some
object in creation as his crest, or tiende. The same thing is noticed by
Captain Grey in his narrative (vol. ii. p. 228).
"But as each family adopts some animal or vegetable, as their crest or
sign, or KOBONG as they call it, I imagine it more likely, that these
have been named after the families, than that the families have been
named after them.
"A certain mysterious connection exists between a family and its KOBONG,
so that a member of a family will never kill an animal of the species, to
which his KOBONG belongs, should he find it asleep; indeed, he always
kills it reluctantly, and never without affording it a chance to escape.
This arises from the family belief, that some one individual of the
species is their nearest friend, to kill whom would be a great crime, and
to be carefully avoided.
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