Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/235

Rh expressions, as mayookōmbo, the man rainbow; ummaiche kōmbo, the woman rainbow: for the outer and inner arcs of the rainbow; yure (an ear); yure ilia (two ears), the native name for Mount Lofty. Nouns have three numbers distinguished by termination, as mayoo, mayoola, mayoona, a man, two men, several men; meena, meenoola, meenoona—an eye, two eyes, several eyes. Terminations, common to many words, have evidently similar meaning or power. Thus: inga, oongga, ungga, imply locality; as perre, a river; perringga, the ground about the river; tando, a bag; tandoongga, the contents of a bag; werle, a hut; werlingga, persons or things in a hut. In the words of which two or more forms are given, these are mostly different inflections corresponding to cases or tenses, but not accurately determined. To the proper names of men and women, usually given soon after birth, are frequently attached others that are distinctive, as well as nicknames, taken from those of animals or inanimate objects, or indicative of physical peculiarities; and derisive terms are occasionally met with, as paiche bōlte, for a disagreeable old woman. Words are often used generically with specific adjuncts, as Paicha, the general term for serpents and various stinging and poisonous animals and plants: toonoo paicha, the common drab-coloured snake; kerlto paicha, large black ant; köinta paicha, mosquito: also paicha mooroo, a kind of dust or powder used for the purpose of poisoning water and food. The natives, also, applied the term to a Grecian tortoise belonging to me, which they thought to be venomous, and were afraid to touch.

The perceptive faculties of the natives are well developed, and their senses of hearing and seeing acute, which enables them to note even the minute characteristics of natural and artificial objects, and to distinguish and imitate the sounds and movements of living beings. Many of them possess a correct musical ear, and have learned to play tunes on the violin, and to sing simple melodies. In the common operations of labour, and the use of tools and implements, they are often but little behind the ordinary European workman. They have, however, seldom any stability of character, and hence it is no uncommon thing for a