LANGUAGE AND NAMES 267 resorted to, then shaded in, proving uproariously successful only when a crack was delineated, with the head and neck of a chicken emerging. The Nuers understand a sketch more quickly, naming a lion from a very unworthy drawing, and explaining that lions, though very numerous, did not trouble them much, as if let alone by man they would generally reciprocate such neglect. I gathered that their word for " lion " had a strange similarity to the English, approximating the sound of aleean, the accent on the second syllable, with the first very short. The Arabic word for " woman " is viara, viariam also being used—a fairly obvious derivation of the name " Mary." The difficulties of interpretation led to uncertainty of the Nuer equivalent, which sounded like inan, but of this 1 could not get confirmation. The expressions for " father " and " mother appear to be root words which have come down from remote ages through the multitudinous branches of the human race. The Dinka and Lur for " mother " is ma, the Sandeh na, and the Bari mama ; while for " father " the Sandeh say ha the Bari and Bamba haha, and the Mombottu papanque. The Bari go a step farther with the word " sister," and say sasser. Probably Cain used the same terms.

The names of Nuers are generally monosyllabic, but, as in England, they as a rule rejoice in two. A Chinese gravestone in Adelaide, Australia, recorded the sepulture of a man appropriately or