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27.
On the Tully River, amongst the Mallanpara, Kokai-Kokai is the term applied toa boy from the time he receives the cheek-cut or chindal *18 up tot he time that he eats the eels at the initiation ceremony when he is known as a ngu-tcha. He is a malani during the time that the belly-cuts are healing, and a chalma onwards, the fully-developed man. A female is a nai-ili when the breasts first begin to protrude, a gatchin at fully developed puberty (corresponding to the chalma stage of the males, a kau-el before bearing a child, and balgari after having borne children.
The progressive titular changes in an individual's life in the Cairns District are here given both in the yidinji (Y) and Kungganji (K) languages:
When an infant of either sex walks and gives up suckling it is a ka-wínji (YK), the sexes being distinguished from this time onwards.
Female - Kúm-ba (YK) from completion of kawinji stage up to close upon puberty; yábbur (YK) at puberty, when she may have shoulder-scars inflicted; and tarkanji (YK) when her first baby appears upon the scene. She then passes gradually into the máttin (K), or tár-anki (Y) stage apparently expressive of the climacterie.
Male wang-ár-re (YK) from completion of Kawinji to puberty; wúr-kun (YK) at puberty, when he undergoes initiation and receives the transverse cuts (mo-in, moingga or war-dir) between the navel and breast. He is then spoken of as a manda-kanjánji (YK) when his first child begins to walk about; nganda (YK) if his children are still all young; bínarla when the latter are all old; and wállo-buri when he is very old, indeed to express the disappearances in great measure of the body-scars.
18 Roth - sect 49, Bull 15.