"Never Assume!"

I recall Alvin mentioning an old Earthclan science fiction series of novels of a comic nature where the two most important words on the cover to its travel guide are "Don't Panic."

I think "Never Assume!" works best for the Civilization of the Four Galaxies.

And in many cases, if you assume wrong, it's then already way too late to even think of panicking.

For example, Humans have been warned repeatedly not to try to initiate a handshake with almost any alien race. (You may be offering it a challenge--or a meal!) If an er tells a human that they will accept a handshake, he or she should never assume that the er is trying to be friendly. They may be trying to trick the human into making the wrong assumption by extending the right hand.

An uninformed human, trying in all earnest to be nice, can be highly insulting to a mother hoon merely by asking the question, "Is this your firstborn son?"

Hoon family possessives do NOT work that way. No male owns a daughter and no female owns a son. And what is a hoon family possessive "first" does not have the same meaning as an Anglic "first."

Alvin's journal begins with his name. Alvin Hph-wayuo, son of Mu-phauwq and Yowg-wayuo.

I am Dor-hinuf, daughter of Twaphu-anuph and Muhaul-hinuf.

A son always mentions his mother's name first, then his father's name, ending with the shared linage name.

A daughter always mentions her father's name first, then her mother's name, ending with the shared linage name.

Tracing Hoon genealogy is much easier than tracing Human genealogy. Linage names don't change.

Children in a family are always mentioned as eldest, second eldest, etc. Youngest is a term that is never used. It implies a finality which may not yet be.

"First" is always gender specific.

Alvin's first born son may or may not be the family's eldest.

Third eldest remains third eldest even if the second eldest child dies. It is always understood that the ranked titles "eldest" refer to born and not living. To assume otherwise would be insulting to both the dead and the living.

As with the use of "youngest," other ranking and superlative terms are never used. A child can be very cute. That is a state of being that may or may not become transitory. To say, "That is the cutest child" is insulting. That directly denies the possibility of other cute children being born into the family, and indirectly insults all other families' existing and future children.

So, these are the basic rules to Hoon family etiquette.

Do not assume that this list is complete.

---Dor-hinuf