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178
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ August, 1922.
czekerd
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jör.
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oro
APPENDIX IX. LIST OF PROPER NAMES, TOGETHER WITH A LIST OF THE "FLOWER” NAMES BORNE BY YOUNG WOMEN DURING MAIDENHOOD AND EARLY
MARRIED LIFE, AND A LIST OF THE VARIOUS SEASONS. Proper names
" Flower Name of tree Names of the Names of the
name. 1 (common to both sexes).*
various minor (or insect)
principal 1 in season. seasons.
Beasons. balea kätiola
lekera-wi-8 | ehtlipa
n påpar 4 berebi
chilip- chilip-wab.
S (-web). bra lo kola
| pa
pd-udb. biala lora
jör-wdb méba ora
Öro-wdbbirola mébola jedya. jidga-wáb.
yere-bodo , bora Ngôngala talib. tâtib udb.
also
rap-db.& balbula
yere
yère-wab
yere burla pärila
baja- baja-uab. büriga pôtya
pataka palak- patak-wab. chetla
pówiola balya baila baila wab. chörmila punga
récheCreche
rêche-wal dora ia
chadak- chaduk-wahgolat riala
chagara chalanga- chalanga-wab. totol
bih 10 tāpnga-wdbirola tura
chdrap- charap-wab. uฟวีร์
diyum.11
diyum-kopngachenra
w&bjó plola woichola
chenara. chenara-wdbkala wóloga
rar. râr-uabkätya yega
Lyulu
yilu-udb.
nidli
17
charapa
järo
• The following remarks may serve to illustrate the use of these names --When & woman is enceinte she and her husband decide what name the child shall bear; 88 & compliment, they often select that of a relative, friend or chief. Supposing the name selected to be bra, should the infant prove to be v. he is called bla-Jta, or, if & girl, bla-kdta (see App. VII, footnoteb)
100 App. VII, footnote b). These only during the first two or three years, after which, until the period of puberty, the lad would be known as bfa-ddla, and the girl as bla-poi-lola until she arrived at womanhood, when she is said to be an (or dka)-Idwi and receives a "flower" name, as a prefix to her proper, or birth, name. By this method it becomes known when their young women are marriageable. There being eighteen prescribed trees which blossom in succession throughout the year, the "flower " name bestowed in each case depends on which of these trees happens to be in season when the girl attains maturity. If, for instance, this should be about the end of August, when the chalanga. (Pterocarpus dalbergioides) is in flower bla-pôilola would become chågara-bia, and this compound name would be borne by her until she married and was a mother, when the "flower" name would give place to the term chana (or chana), answering to Madam, which she retains unaltered for the rest of her life. If, however, she remain child. less a woman has to pass some years of married life before being addressed as chana. As it rarely, if over, happens that in any of their small communities two young women are found bearing the same "flower and birth names, the possibility of confusion arising in this respect is very remote.
Since no corresponding custom exists in regard to the other sex, nick names are frequently given to young men in allusion to some personal peculiarity, as for example, bla.pdg (bia-foot), he having big feet; balla-jobo (balta-snake), he having lost a hand from a snake bite; fra-jodo (fra- entrails), he having had a protuberant belly in his youth. These nick names cling to the bearer through lifn, especially if they refer to some physical defect or deformity. Further details on this subject will be found in the Journ. Roy. Anthrop. Inst. (1883), Vol. XII, pp. 127-9.)
