The Rev. Mr. Bulmer tells us that a mother's cry of Lathi! when a daughter is carried off by a warrior, is peculiarly sad, and sufficient to awaken sympathy in any bosom.
The Rev. Mr. Taplin says that "the Narriuyeri often utter iuarticulate sounds, in order to express their feelings and wishes. These answer to our interjections, such as 'Oh! Ah!' &c., only it is not easy to express them by letters. Their method of saying 'yes' and 'no' is very difficult to write down. A sort of grunt, which may perhaps answer to the letters ng, pronounced in an affirmative tone, means 'yes;' the same sort of grunt, which can only be written by the same letters, but uttered in a negative, forbidding tone, means 'no.' Their expressions of surprise are the following:—Kai, hai! This is a pure interjection, and only means sudden astonishment. Porluna; this means 'Oh! children,' and is a common expression of wonder and amazement. Tyin embe! is an expression too filthy to be translatable; nevertheless it is a very common interjection of astonishment amongst the old blacks. The word Koh is used to attract attention, or to call out to a person to come. It is uttered long, and the o very round. The same word Koh, uttered short, is a sort of note of interrogation, and is used in asking a question. The h is strongly aspirated. A sort of cry, used to attract attention, may be written Ngaaaah, the h strongly aspirated. It must be understood, however, that in all these cases our letters only give an approximation to the sound; it must be heard in order to be understood. Some of the old women, by way of salutation on meeting a friend, will say, Kaw, kah-kah, kah. It sounds very much like an old crow. All the natives, old and young, when they are hurt, cry out Nanghai, nanghai, nanghai!—'My father, my father, my father!' or else, Nainkowa, nainkowa, nainkowa!—'My mother, my mother, my mother!' Males usually say the former, females the latter, although not invariably so. It is ludicrous to hear an old man or woman with a grey head, whose parents have been dead for years, when they hurt themselves, cry like children, and say Nanghai, or Nainkowa, as the case may be. The Narrinyeri are skilful in the utterance of emotion by sound. . . . . . . After I had finished the burial service, to which they were all very attentive, they proceeded in native fashion to raise a loud lamentation over the grave. First of all, old Kartoinyeri and Winkappi uttered a keen wail in a very long, high note, gradually lowering the tone; this was joined in by all the women present. Then the rest of the men uttered a long, loud, deep-bass groan. As that rolled away, the keen wail of Kartoinyeri and Winkappi, and the women, broke in; and as that began to lower in tone, the deep groan of the men was heard. This was continually repeated for about ten minutes. . . . . As an expression of grief by sound, it was perfect."[1]
A correspondent of Mr. Alfred Hewitt's says that a word like Nin-ki—the last syllable much prolonged—seems to be a usual way of arresting attention amongst all the blacks of South Australia.
These brief notes afford material which will be of assistance in future researches.
- ↑ The Narrinyeri, pp. 95-6.
