Page:Hausa Proverbs.djvu/107

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Hausa Proper Names
95

usually on the side of the frontal bones, but also in other places.

Katambirri are the marks, usually black, which women paint on their faces.

When it is remembered that each tribe and subdivision have different marks, it is apparent that the subject is a large one. This note merely calls attention to it.

HAUSA PROPER NAMES.

Most natives who are nominally Muhammadans, including nearly all soldiers and men who come in contact with Europeans and are more or less civilized, have adopted names from the Quran, or the common corruptions of them, and by these they are known in their "book," though their names among their friends are often quite different. The correct spelling of these proper names has received very little attention, though, being derived from Arabic, their orthography is more or less fixed.

To follow all the vagaries of uneducated pronunciation creates unnecessary confusion. It is just as absurd to write Jarge instead of George as to write Aloo instead of Aliyu or Alihu.

Such names are: — Audu, Abdu, Aliyu, Alihu, Ali (not Ally), Mahmadu (not Mamadu), Mahama (not Momma or Mamma), Muhammadu (not Mohamedu), Ahmadu (not Amadu), Saidu (not Seydu), Hassan, Alhassan, Sani, Sanusi, Husaini (not Oseni), Suli (not Suley), Sulimanu, Musa, Moshi, Bakri, Bekri, Abu