[Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And Overland From Adelaide To King George’s Sound In The Years 1840-1 Volume 2. by Edward John Eyre]@TWC D-Link bookJournals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And Overland From Adelaide To King George’s Sound In The Years 1840-1 Volume 2. CHAPTER IV 35/39
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.
Similarly, a native who has a vegetable for his KOBONG, may not gather it under certain circumstances, and at a particular period of the year." From the foregoing quotation, it is apparent that very little difference exists in the custom as practised in Western and Southern Australia.
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