Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/51

Rh feared that blame will fall upon that son who calls his father by his name; there is blame, according to our custom, if the son says to his father, "So and So," mentioning his great name, that son takes himself out from his birth; he makes himself (as one) who has not been born; he is a foreigner to his father; it is not at all fitting that a son should call his father by his name, just as he might call his friend (of his own age).

Again—daughters, for their part, are restrained from (uttering) the name of their father, just as sons are. Women are called by the name of their father, in the place where they have gone to (to be married), it is said (to such an one) "Umabani," that is to say, "Daughter of So and So," that she may be known there where she marries, and they may know her there, knowing her father: they say, "Whose daughter are you? who is that So and So after whom you are called?" She says, "So and So, son of So and So," mentioning her grandfather who begot her father.

But sons very often call their father by a new name, such as that of their grandfather, or a name which has been bestowed on him for his bravery, a name of weapons. Thus there is (the name of) Umlamula-nkunzi-zilwako. That name, the sons do not fear it; if they want to ask anything of their father, they appease him with it, to the end that they may get what they want. Not the little ones—they do not say it; only those who are already grown up, they have power to call their father by it; and if they are pleading in a case, they are not restrained from (using) that name. Because, as to that name, it is not fitting that they should call their father by it, when there is no trouble (but) all is going well; (when there is trouble, however,) let it appease him, because he is reminded by that name