Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/58

 changed by marriage; and they are always addressed and known by their maiden names, unless they are exchanged publicly.

Personal names are rarely perpetuated, as it is believed that anyone adopting that of a deceased person will not live long. This superstition accounts for the great number of unmeaning names in a tribe. When a dead man or woman is referred to, it is by the general term 'muuruukan'—'dead person;' but when the time of mourning has expired, they can be spoken of by name, though still with very great unwillingness. If they need to be named by strangers during the period of mourning, it must be in whispers. As a great favour to the writer, references were made by name to deceased relatives; but this was done with so much reluctance, that in several instances the inquiry had to be abandoned without obtaining the desired information; and one man would not pronounce his own name because it was the same as that of his deceased brother. Not only is the name of a deceased person forbidden to be mentioned, but the names of all his near relatives are disused during the period of mourning, and they are mentioned only in general terms, as exemplified below. To call them by their own names is considered an insult to the deceased, and frequently leads to fighting and bloodshed.