who have officiated never afterwards mention the name of the young men,
nor do the latter ever mention the names of the individuals who have
operated upon them; should the name of either be accidentally mentioned
in the presence of the other, they are greatly annoyed, and at once put
the hand up to the mouth to signify that it must not be spoken. It is
thus often very difficult to find out the names of particular natives,
and strangers would make many mistakes, imagining that they were putting
down the name, when in reality they were marking some phrase, signifying
that his name could not be mentioned by the one applied to. They have no
objection to meet each other after the ceremony, nor do they decline
speaking, but there is this peculiarity in their conduct that if one
gives food, or any thing else to the other, it is either laid on the
ground for him to take, or is given through the intervention of a third
person, in the gentlest and mildest manner possible, whereas to another
native it would be jerked, perhaps much in the same way that a bone is
thrown to a dog. There are other instances in which the names of natives
are never allowed to be spoken, as those of a father or mother-in-law, of
a son-in-law and some cases arising from a connection with each other's
wives. In speaking, therefore, of one another, or introducing persons to
distant natives, a very round about way of describing them has often to
be adopted, yet so intimately are neighbouring tribes acquainted with the
peculiar relations subsisting between the members of each, that there is
rarely any difficulty in comprehending who the individual is that is
alluded to. Among the Adelaide tribes, there is no circumstance but death
that makes them unwilling to mention the name of any of their
acquaintances, and this cause of unwillingness I believe extends equally
all over the continent.

The ceremony of tattooing is practised among the tribes of the Murray and
its neighbourhood with great circumstantial variety. Some are tattooed