roughly indicates the stages of their life; for these stages in practice merge into one another.
Designations of Age
1. Waywaya (foetus; infant till the age of crawling, both male and female) | I. Stage: Gwadi — Word used as a generic designation for all these stages 1-4, meaning child, male or female, at any time between birth and maturity | ||
2. Pwapwawa (infant, till the stage of walking, male or female) | |||
3. Gwadi (child, till puberty, male or female) | |||
4. Monagwadi (male child) | 4. Inagwadi (female child) | ||
5. To'ulatile (youth from puberty till marriage) | 5. Nakapugula or Nakubukwabuya (girl from puberty till marriage) | II. Stage: Generic designations — Ta'u (man), Vivila (woman) | |
6. Tobubowa'u (mature man) | 6. Nabubowa'u (ripe woman) | ||
6a. Tovavaygile (married man) | 6a. Navavaygile (married woman) | ||
7. Tomwaya (old man) | 7. Numwaya (old woman) | III. Stage: Old age | |
7a. Toboma (old honoured man) |
The terms used in this table will be found to overlap in some instances. Thus a very small infant may be referred to as waywaya or pwapwawa indiscriminately, but only the former term as a rule would be used in speaking of a fœtus or referring to the pre-incarnated children from Tuma.[1] Again, you might call a few months old child either gwadi or pwapwawa, but the latter term would be but seldom used except for a very small baby. The term gwadi moreover can be used generically, as "child" in English, to denote anything from a fœtus to a young boy or girl. Thus, it will be seen that two terms may encroach on each other's field of meaning, but only
- ↑ Cf. ch. vii, sec. 2.