Chapter VII: Our Debt to the Savage (1)

(M254) It would be easy to extend the list of royal and priestly taboos, but the instances collected in the preceding pages may suffice as specimens. To conclude this part of our subject it only remains to state summarily the general conclusions to which our enquiries have thus far conducted us. We have seen that in savage or barbarous society there are often found men to whom the superstition of their fellows ascribes a controlling influence over the general course of nature. Such men are accordingly adored and treated as gods. Whether these human divinities also hold temporal sway over the lives and fortunes of their adorers, or whether their functions are purely spiritual and supernatural, in other words, whether they are kings as well as gods or only the latter, is a distinction which hardly concerns us here. Their supposed divinity is the essential fact with which we have to deal. In virtue of it they are a pledge and guarantee to their worshippers of the continuance and orderly succession of those physical phenomena upon which mankind depends for subsistence. Naturally, therefore, the life and health of such a god-man are matters of anxious concern to the people whose welfare and even existence are bound up with his; naturally he is constrained by them to conform to such rules as the wit of early man has devised for averting the ills to which flesh is heir, including the last ill, death. These rules, as an examination of them has shewn, are nothing but the maxims with which, on the primitive view, every man of common prudence must comply if he would live long in the land. But while in the case of ordinary men the observance of the rules is left to the choice of the individual, in the case of the god-man it is enforced under penalty of dismissal from his high station, or even of death. For his worshippers have far too great a stake in his life to allow him to play fast and loose with it. Therefore all the quaint superstitions, the old-world maxims, the venerable saws which the ingenuity of savage philosophers elaborated long ago, and which old women at chimney corners still impart as treasures of great price to their descendants gathered round the cottage fire on winter evenings—all these antique fancies clustered, all these cobwebs of the brain were spun about the path of the old king, the human god, who, immeshed in them like a fly in the toils of a spider, could hardly stir a limb for the threads of custom, “light as air but strong as links of iron,” that crossing and recrossing each other in an endless maze bound him fast within a network of observances from which death or deposition alone could release him.

(M255) Thus to students of the past the life of the old kings and priests teems with instruction. In it was summed up all that passed for wisdom when the world was young. It was the perfect pattern after which every man strove to shape his life; a faultless model constructed with rigorous accuracy upon the lines laid down by a barbarous philosophy. Crude and false as that philosophy may seem to us, it would be unjust to deny it the merit of logical consistency. Starting from a conception of the vital principle as a tiny being or soul existing in, but distinct and separable from, the living being, it deduces for the practical guidance of life a system of rules which in general hangs well together and forms a fairly complete and harmonious whole.(1551) The flaw—and it is a fatal one—of the system lies not in its reasoning, but in its premises; in its conception of the nature of life, not in any irrelevancy of the conclusions which it draws from that conception. But to stigmatise these premises as ridiculous because we can easily detect their falseness, would be ungrateful as well as unphilosophical. We stand upon the foundation reared by the generations that have gone before, and we can but dimly realise the painful and prolonged efforts which it has cost humanity to struggle up to the point, no very exalted one after all, which we have reached. Our gratitude is due to the nameless and forgotten toilers, whose patient thought and active exertions have largely made us what we are. The amount of new knowledge which one age, certainly which one man, can add to the common store is small, and it argues stupidity or dishonesty, besides ingratitude, to ignore the heap while vaunting the few grains which it may have been our privilege to add to it. There is indeed little danger at present of undervaluing the contributions which modern times and even classical antiquity have made to the general advancement of our race. But when we pass these limits, the case is different. Contempt and ridicule or abhorrence and denunciation are too often the only recognition vouchsafed to the savage and his ways. Yet of the benefactors whom we are bound thankfully to commemorate, many, perhaps most, were savages. For when all is said and done our resemblances to the savage are still far more numerous than our differences from him; and what we have in common with him, and deliberately retain as true and useful, we owe to our savage forefathers who slowly acquired by experience and transmitted to us by inheritance those seemingly fundamental ideas which we are apt to regard as original and intuitive. We are like heirs to a fortune which has been handed down for so many ages that the memory of those who built it up is lost, and its possessors for the time being regard it as having been an original and unalterable possession of their race since the beginning of the world. But reflection and enquiry should satisfy us that to our predecessors we are indebted for much of what we thought most our own, and that their errors were not wilful extravagances or the ravings of insanity, but simply hypotheses, justifiable as such at the time when they were propounded, but which a fuller experience has proved to be inadequate. It is only by the successive testing of hypotheses and rejection of the false that truth is at last elicited. After all, what we call truth is only the hypothesis which is found to work best. Therefore in reviewing the opinions and practices of ruder ages and races we shall do well to look with leniency upon their errors as inevitable slips made in the search for truth, and to give them the benefit of that indulgence which we ourselves may one day stand in need of; _cum excusatione itaque veteres audiendi sunt_.

Note. Not To Step Over Persons And Things.(1552)

The superstition that harm is done to a person or thing by stepping over him or it is very widely spread. Thus the Galelareese think that if a man steps over your fishing-rod or your arrow, the fish will not bite when you fish with that rod, and the game will not be hit by that arrow when you shoot it. They say it is as if the implements merely skimmed past the fish or the game.(1553) Similarly, if a Highland sportsman saw a person stepping over his gun or fishing-rod, he presumed but little on that day’s diversion.(1554) When a Dacota had bad luck in hunting, he would say that a woman had been stepping over some part of the animal which he revered.(1555) Amongst many South African tribes it is considered highly improper to step over a sleeper; if a wife steps over her husband he cannot hit his enemy in war; if she steps over his assegais, they are from that time useless, and are given to boys to play with.(1556) The Baganda think that if a woman steps over a man’s weapons, they will not aim straight and will not kill, unless they have been first purified.(1557) The Nandi of British East Africa hold that to step over a snare or trap is to court death and must be avoided at all risks; further, they are of opinion that if a man were to step over a pot, he would fall to pieces whenever the pot were broken.(1558) The people of the Lower Congo deem that to step over a person’s body or legs will cause ill-luck to that person and they are careful not to do so, especially in passing men who are holding a palaver. At such times a passer-by will shuffle his feet along the ground without lifting them in order that he may not be charged with bringing bad luck on any one.(1559) On the other hand among the Wajagga of East Africa grandchildren leap over the corpse of their grandfather, when it is laid out, expressing a wish that they may live to be as old as he.(1560) In Laos hunters are careful never to step over their weapons.(1561) The Tepehuanes of Mexico believe that if anybody steps over them, they will not be able to kill another deer in their lives.(1562) Some of the Australian aborigines are seriously alarmed if a woman steps over them as they lie asleep on the ground.(1563) In the tribes about Maryborough in Queensland, if a woman steps over anything that belongs to a man he will throw it away.(1564) In New Caledonia it is thought to endanger a canoe if a woman steps over the cable.(1565) Everything that a Samoyed woman steps over becomes unclean and must be fumigated.(1566) Malagasy porters believe that if a woman strides over their poles, the skin will certainly peel off the shoulders of the bearers when next they take up the burden.(1567) The Cherokees fancy that to step over a vine causes it to wither and bear no fruit.(1568) The Ba-Pendi and Ba-thonga of South Africa think that if a woman steps over a man’s legs, they will swell and he will not be able to run.(1569) According to the South Slavonians, the most serious maladies may be communicated to a person by stepping over him, but they can afterwards be cured by stepping over him in the reverse direction.(1570) The belief that to step over a child hinders it from growing is found in France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Syria; in Syria, Germany, and Bohemia the mischief can be remedied by stepping over the child in the opposite direction.(1571)

INDEX.

Abdication of kings in favour of their infant children, 19, 20

Abduction of souls by demons, 58 _sqq._

Abipones, the, 328, 350;
changes in their language, 360

Abnormal mental states accounted inspiration, 248

Abortion, superstition as to woman who has procured, 153

Absence and recall of the soul, 30 _sqq._

Achilles, 261

Acts, tabooed, 101 _sqq._

Adivi or forest Gollas, the, 149

Aetolians, the, 311

Africa, fetish kings in West, 22 _sqq._;
names of animals and things tabooed in, 400 _sq._

Agutainos, the, 144

Air, prohibition to be uncovered in the open, 3, 14

Akamba, the, 204

Akikuyu, the, 175, 204, 286;
auricular confession among the, 214

Albanians of the Caucasus, 349

Alberti, L., 220

Alcmena and Hercules, 298 _sq._

Alfoors of Celebes, 33;
of Minahassa, 63 _sq._

Amboyna, 87, 105

Amenophis III., his birth represented on the monuments, 28

American Indians, their fear of naming the dead, 351 _sqq._

Ammon, Hanun, King of, 273

Amoy, 59

Amulets, knots used as, 306 _sqq._;
rings as, 314 _sqq._

Ancestors, names of, bestowed on their reincarnations, 368 _sq._;
reborn in their descendants, 368 _sq._

Ancestral spirits, cause sickness, 53;
sacrifices to, 104

Andaman Islanders, 183 _n._

Andania, mysteries of, 227 _n._

_Angakok_, Esquimaux wizard or sorcerer, 211, 212

Angoni, the, 174

Animals injured through their shadows, 81 _sq._;
propitiation of spirits of slain, 190, 204 _sq._;
atonement for slain, 207;
dangerous, not called by their proper names, 396 _sqq._;
thought to understand human speech, 398 _sq._, 400

Animism passing into religion, 213

Anklets as amulets, 315

Annamites, the, 235

Anointment of priests at installation, 14

Antambahoaka, the, 216

Ants, bites of, used in purificatory ceremony, 105

Apaches, the, 182, 184, 325, 328

Apollo, purification of, 223 _n._1

Apuleius, 270

Arab mode of cursing an enemy, 312

Arabs of Moab, 273, 280

Araucanians, the, 97, 324

Ares, men sacred to, 111

Arikaras, the, 161

Aristeas of Proconnesus, 34

Army under arms, prohibition to see, 13

Arrows to keep off death, 31

Aru Islands, 37, 276

Arunta, their belief as to the ghosts of the slain, 177 _sq._;
ceremonies at the end of mourning among the, 373 _sq._

Arval Brothers, 226

Aryans, the primitive, their theory of personal names, 319

Ashes strewn on the head, 112

Ash-tree, parings of nails buried under an, 276

Assam, taboos observed by headmen in, 11;
hill tribes of, 323

Astarte at Hierapolis, 286

Aston, W. G., 2 _n._2

Astrolabe Bay, 289

Athens, kings at, 21 _sq._;
ritual of cursing at, 75

Atonement for slain animals, 207

Attiuoindarons, the, 366

_Atua_, ancestral spirit, 134, 265

Augur’s staff at Rome, 313

Auricular confession, 214

Aurohuaca Indians, 215

Australian aborigines;
their conception of the soul, 27;
personal names kept secret among the, 320 _sqq._;
their fear of naming the dead, 349 _sqq._

Aversion of spirits and fairies to iron, 229, 232 _sq._

Avoidance of common words to deceive spirits or other beings, 416 _sqq._

Aymara Indians, the, 97

Aztecs, the, 249;
their priests, 259

Babylonian witches and wizards, 302

Bad Country, the, 109

Badham, Dr., 156 _n._

Baduwis, the, of Java, 115 _sq._, 232

Bag, souls collected in a, 63 _sq._

Baganda, the, 78, 87

—— fishermen, taboos observed by, 194 _sq._ _See also_ Uganda

Bagba, a fetish, 5

Bageshu, the, 174

Bagobos, the, 31, 315, 323

Bahima, the, 183 _n._;
names of their dead kings not mentioned, 375

Bahnars of Cochin-China, 52, 58

Baking, continence observed at, 201

Balder, Norse god, 305 _n._1

Ba-Lua, the, 330

Banana-trees, fruit-bearing, hair deposited under, 286

Bandages to prevent the escape of the soul, 32, 71

Bangala, the, 195 _sq._, 330

Bangkok, 90

Baoules, the, 70

Ba-Pedi, the, 141, 153, 163, 202

Baron, R., 380

Baronga, the, 272

Basagala, the, 361

Basket, souls gathered into a, 72

Bastian, A., 252, 253

Basutos, burial custom of the, 107;
purification of warriors among the, 172

Bathing (washing) as a ceremonial purification, 141, 142, 150, 153, 168,
169, 172, 173, 175, 179, 183, 192, 198, 219, 220, 222, 285,
286

Ba-Thonga, the, 141, 154, 163, 202

Battas or Bataks of Sumatra, 34, 45, 46, 65, 116, 296

Bavili, the, 78

Bawenda, the, 243

Bayazid, the Sultan, and his soul, 50

Beans, prohibition to touch or name, 13 _sq._

Bear, the polar, taboos concerning, 209;
customs observed by Lapps after killing a, 221

Bears not to be called by their proper names, 397 _sq._, 399, 402

Bechuanas, purification of manslayers among the, 172 _sq._, 174

Bed, feet of, smeared with mud, 14;
prohibition to sleep in a, 194

Beef and milk not to be eaten at the same meal, 292

Beer, continence observed at brewing, 200

Bells as talismans, 235

Benin, kings of, 123, 243

Bentley, R., 33 _n._3

Besisis, the, 87

Beveridge, P., 363 _sq._

Bird, soul conceived as a, 33 _sqq._

Birds, ghosts of slain as, 177 _sq._;
cause headache through clipped hair, 270 _sq._, 282

Birth from a golden image, pretence of, 113;
premature, 213. _See_ Miscarriage

Bismarck Archipelago, 128

Bites of ants used as purificatory ceremony, 105

Blackening faces of warriors, 163;
of manslayers, 169, 178, 181

Blackfoot Indians, 159 _n._

Black Mountain of southern France, 42

—— ox or black ram in magic, 154

Bladders, annual festival of, among the Esquimaux, 206 _sq._, 228

“Blessers” or sacred kings, 125 _n._

Blood put on doorposts, 15;
of slain, supposed effect of it on the slayer, 169;
smeared on person as a purification, 104, 115, 219;
drawn from bodies of manslayers, 176, 180;
tabooed, 239 _sqq._;
not eaten, 240 _sq._;
soul in the, 240, 241, 247, 250;
of game poured out, 241;
royal, not to be shed on the ground, 241 _sqq._;
unwillingness to shed, 243, 246 _sq._;
received on bodies of kinsfolk, 244 _sq._;
drops of, effaced, 245 _sq._;
horror of, 245;
of chief sacred, 248;
of women, dread of, 250 _sq._

—— of childbirth, supposed dangerous infection of, 152 _sqq._;
received on heads of friends or slaves, 245

—— -lickers, 246

Blowing upon knots, as a charm, 302, 304

Boa-constrictor, purification of man who has killed a, 221 _sq._

Boars, wild, not to be called by their proper names, 411, 415

Boas, Dr. Franz, 210 _sqq._, 214

Bodia or Bodio, a West African pontiff or fetish king, 14 _sq._, 23

Bodies, souls transferred to other, 49

Bodos, the, of Assam, 285

Boiled flesh tabooed, 185

Bolang Mongondo, a district in Celebes, 53, 279, 341

Bonds, no man in bonds allowed in priest’s house, 14

Bones of human bodies which have been eaten, special treatment of, 189
_sq._;
of the dead, their treatment after the decay of the flesh, 372 _n._5;
of dead disinterred and scraped, 373 _n._

Boobies, the, 8 _sq._

Born again, pretence of being, 113

Bornu, Sultan of, 120

Bororos, the, 34, 36

Bourke, Captain J. G., 184

Box, strayed soul caught in, 45, 70, 76

Bracelets as amulets, 315

Brahman student, his cut hair and nails, 277

Brahmans, their common and secret names, 322

Branches used in exorcism, 109

Breath of chief sacred, 136, 256

Breathing on a person as a mode of purification, 149

Brewing, continence observed at, 200, 201 _sq._

Bribri Indians, their ideas as to the uncleanness of women, 147, 149

Bride and bridegrooms, all knots on their garments unloosed, 299 _sq._

Bronze employed in expiatory rites, 226 _n._6;
priests to be shaved with, 226

—— knife to cut priest’s hair, 14

Brother and sister not allowed to mention each other’s names, 344

Brothers-in-law, their names not to be pronounced, 338, 342, 343, 344, 345

Buddha, Footprint of, 275

Building shadows into foundations, 89 _sq._

_Bukuru_, unclean, 147

Bulgarian building custom, 89

Burghead, 230

Burial under a running stream, 15

—— customs to prevent the escape of the soul, 51, 52

Burials, customs as to shadows at, 80 _sq._

Burma, kings of, 375

Burmese conception of the soul as a butterfly, 51 _sq._

Burning cut hair and nails to prevent them being used in sorcery, 281
_sqq._

Buryat shaman, his mode of recovering lost souls, 56 _sq._

Butterfly, the soul as a, 29 _n._1, 51 _sq._

Cacongo, King of, 115, 118

Caffre customs at circumcision, 156 _sq._

Caffres, “women’s speech” among the, 335 _sq._

Calabar, fetish king at, 22 _sq._

Calabashes, souls shut up in, 72

Calchaquis Indians, 31

Californian Indians, 352

Cambodia, kings of, 376

Camden, W., 68

Campbell, J., 384

Camphor, special language employed by searchers for, 405 _sqq._

Canelos Indians, 97

Cannibalism at hair-cutting, 264

Cannibals, taboos imposed on, among the Kwakiutl, 188 _sqq._

Canoe, fish offered to, 195

Canoes, continence observed at building, 202

Captives killed and eaten, 179 _sq._

Carayahis, the, 348

Caribou, taboos concerning, 208

Caribs, difference of language between men and women among the, 348

Caroline Islands, 25, 193, 290, 293

Caron’s _Account of Japan_, 4 _n._2

Carrier Indians, 215, 367

Catat, Dr., 98

Catlin, G., 182

Cats with stumpy tails, reason of, 128 _sq._

Cattle, continence observed for sake of, 204;
protected against wolves by charms, 307

Caul-fat extracted by Australian enemies, 303

“Cauld airn,” 233

Cazembes, the, 132

Celebes, 32, 33, 35;
hooking souls in, 30

Celibacy of holy milkmen, 15, 16

Ceremonial purity observed in war, 157

Ceremonies at the reception of strangers, 102 _sqq._;
at entering a strange land, 109 _sqq._;
purificatory, on return from a journey, 111 _sqq._;
observed after slaughter of panthers, lions, bears, serpents, etc., 219
_sqq._;
at hair-cutting, 264 _sqq._

Cetchwayo, King, 377

Chams, the, 202, 297

Change of language caused by taboo on the names of the dead, 358 _sqq._,
375;
caused by taboo on names of chiefs and kings, 375, 376 _sqq._

—— of names to deceive ghosts, 354 _sqq._

Charms to facilitate childbirth, 295 _sq._

Chastity. _See_ Continence

_Chegilla_, taboo, 137

Cheremiss, the, 391

Cherokee sorcery with spittle, 287 _sq._

Chiefs, foods tabooed to, 291, 292;
names of, tabooed, 376 _sq._, 378 _sq._, 381, 382

—— and kings tabooed, 131 _sqq._

—— sacred, not allowed to leave their enclosures, 124;
regarded as dangerous, 138

Child and father, supposed danger of resemblance between, 88 _sq._

Child’s nails bitten off, 262

Childbed, taboos imposed on women in, 147 _sqq._

Childbirth, precautions taken with mother at, 32, 33;
women tabooed at, 147 _sqq._;
confession of sins as a means of expediting, 216 _sq._;
women after, their hair shaved and burnt, 284;
homoeopathic magic to facilitate, 295 _sqq._;
knots untied at, 294, 296 _sq._, 297 _sq._

Children, young, tabooed, 262, 283;
parents named after their, 331 _sqq._

Chiloe, Indians of, 287, 324

China, custom at funerals in, 80;
Emperor of, 125, 375 _sq._

Chitomé or Chitombé, a pontiff of Congo, 5 _sq._, 7

Chittagong, 297

Choctaws, the, 181

Chuckchees, the, 358

Circumcision customs among the Caffres, 156 _sq._;
performed with flints, not iron, 227;
in Australia, 244

Circumlocutions adopted to avoid naming the dead, 350, 351, 354, 355;
employed by reapers, 412

Cities, guardian deities of, evoked by enemies, 391

Clasping of hands forbidden, 298

_Clavie_, the, at Burghead, 229 _sq._

Cleanliness fostered by superstition, 130;
personal, observed in war, 157, 158 _n._1

Clippings of hair, magic wrought through, 268 _sqq._, 275, 277, 278 _sq._

Clotaire, 259

Clothes of sacred persons tabooed, 131

Cloths used to catch souls, 46, 47, 48, 52, 53, 64, 67, 75 _sq._

Clotilde, Queen, 259

Cobra, ceremonies after killing a, 222 _sq._

Coco-nut oil made by chaste women, 201

_Codjour_, a priestly king, 132 _n._1

Coins, portraits of kings not stamped on, 98 _sq._

Comanches, the, 360

Combing the hair forbidden, 187, 203, 208, 264;
thought to cause storms, 271

Combs of sacred persons, 256

Common objects, names of, changed when they are the names of the dead, 358
_sqq._, 375, or the names of chiefs and kings, 375, 376 _sqq._

—— words tabooed, 392 _sqq._

Concealment of miscarriage in childbed, supposed effects of, 152 _sqq._

Concealment of personal names from fear of magic, 320 _sqq._

Conciliating the spirits of the land, 110 _sq._

Conduct, standard of, shifted from natural to supernatural basis, 213
_sq._

Confession of sins, 114, 191, 195, 211 _sq._, 214 _sqq._;
originally a magical ceremony, 217

Connaught, kings of, 11 _sq._

Consummation of marriage prevented by knots and locks, 299 _sqq._

Contagious magic, 246, 268, 272

Continence enjoined on people during the rounds of sacred pontiff, 5;
of Zapotec priests, 6;
of priests, 159 _n._

—— observed on eve of period of taboo, 11;
by those who have handled the dead, 142;
during war, 157, 158 _n._1, 161, 163, 164, 165;
after victory, 166 _sqq._, 175, 178, 179, 181;
by cannibals, 188;
by fishers and hunters, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 207;
by workers in salt-pans, 200;
at brewing beer, wine, and poison, 200 _sq._, 201 _sq._;
at baking, 201;
at making coco-nut oil, 201;
at building canoes, 202;
at house-building, 202;
at making or repairing dams, 202;
on trading voyages, 203;
after festivals, 204;
on journeys, 204;
while cattle are at pasture, 204;
by lion-killers and bear-killers, 220, 221;
before handling holy relics, 272;
by tabooed men, 293

Cooking, taboos as to, 147 _sq._, 156, 165, 169, 178, 185, 193, 194, 198,
209, 221, 256

Coptic church, 235, 310 _n._5

Cords, knotted, in magic, 302, 303 _sq._

Corea, clipped hair burned in, 283

—— kings of, 125;
not to be touched with iron, 226

Corpses, knots not allowed about, 310

Cousins, male and female, not allowed to mention each other’s names, 344

Covenant, spittle used in making a, 290

Covering up mirrors at a death, 94 _sq._

Cow bewitched, 93

Cowboy of the king of Unyoro, 159 _n._

Creek Indians, the, 156;
their war customs, 161

Crevaux, J., 105

Criminals shaved as a mode of purification, 287

Crocodiles not called by their proper names, 403, 410, 411, 415 _sq._

Crossing of legs forbidden, 295, 298 _sq._

Crown, imperial, as palladium, 4

Crystals used in divination, 56

Curr, E. M., 320 _sq._

Cursing at Athens, ritual of, 75

—— an enemy, Arab mode of, 312

Curtains to conceal kings, 120 _sq._

Cut hair and nails, disposal of, 267 _sqq._

Cuts made in the body as a mode of expelling demons or ghosts, 106 _sq._;
in bodies of manslayers, 174, 176, 180;
in bodies of slain, 176. _See also_ Incisions

Cutting the hair a purificatory ceremony, 283 _sqq._

Cynaetha, people of, 188

Cyzicus, council chamber at, 230

Dacotas, the, 181

Dahomey, the King of, 9;
royal family of, 243;
kings of, their “strong names,” 374

Dairi, the, or Mikado of Japan, 2, 4

Dairies, sacred, of the Todas, 15 _sqq._

Dairymen, sacred, of the Todas, 15 _sqq._

Damaras, the, 247

Dams, continence at making or repairing, 202

Dance of king, 123;
of successful head-hunters, 166

Dances of victory, 169, 170, 178, 182

Danger of being overshadowed by certain birds or people, 82 _sq._;
supposed, of portraits and photographs, 96 _sqq._;
supposed to attend contact with divine or sacred persons, such as chiefs
and kings, 132, 138

Darfur, 81;
Sultan of, 120

Dassera, festival of the, 316

Daughter-in-law, her name not to be pronounced, 338

David and the King of Moab, 273

Dawson, J., 347 _sq._

Dead, sacrifices to the, 15, 88;
taboos on persons who have handled the, 138 _sqq._;
souls of the dead all malignant, 145;
names of the dead tabooed, 349 _sqq._;
to name the dead a serious crime, 352;
names of the dead not borne by the living, 354;
reincarnation or resurrection of the dead in their namesakes, 365
_sqq._;
festivals of the, 367, 371

—— body, prohibition to touch, 14

Death, natural, of sacred king or priest, supposed fatal consequences of,
6, 7;
kept off by arrows, 31;
mourners forbidden to sleep in house after a death, 37;
custom of covering up mirrors at a, 94 _sq._;
from imagination, 135 _sqq._

Debt of civilisation to savagery, 421 _sq._

Defiled hands, 174. _See_ Hands

De Groot, J. J. M., 390

Demons, abduction of souls by, 58 _sqq._;
of disease expelled by pungent spices, pricks, and cuts, 105 _sq._;
and ghosts averse to iron, 232 _sqq._

Devils, abduction of souls by, 58 _sqq._

Dido, her magical rites, 312

Diet of kings and priests regulated, 291 _sqq._

Dieterich, A., 369 _n._3

Difference of language between husbands and wives, 347 _sq._;
between men and women, 348 _sq._

Diminution of shadow regarded with apprehension, 86 _sq._

Dio Chrysostom, on fame as a shadow, 86 _sq._

Diodorus Siculus, 12 _sq._

Dionysus in the city, festival of, 316

Disease, demons of, expelled by pungent spices, pricks, and cuts, 105
_sq._

Disenchanting strangers, various modes of, 102 _sqq._

Dishes, effect of eating out of sacred, 4;
of sacred persons tabooed, 131. _See_ Vessels

Disposal of cut hair and nails, 267 _sqq._

Divination by shoulder-blades of sheep, 229

Divinities, human, bound by many rules, 419 _sq._

Divorce of spiritual from temporal power, 17 _sqq._

Dobrizhoffer, Father M., 328, 360

Dog, prohibition to touch or name, 13

Dogs, bones of game kept from, 206;
unclean, 206;
tigers called, 402

Dolls or puppets employed for the restoration of souls to their bodies, 53
_sqq._, 62 _sq._

Doorposts, blood put on, 15

Doors opened to facilitate childbirth, 296, 297;
to facilitate death, 309

Doubles, spiritual, of men and animals, 28 _sq._

Doutté, E., 390

Dreams, absence of soul in, 36 _sqq._;
belief of savages in the reality of, 36 _sq._;
omens drawn from, 161

Drinking and eating, taboos on, 116 _sqq._;
modes of drinking for tabooed persons, 117 _sqq._, 120, 143, 146, 147,
148, 160, 182, 183, 185, 189, 197, 198, 256

Drought supposed to be caused by a concealed miscarriage, 153 _sq._

Dugong fishing, taboos in connexion with, 192

Dyaks, the Sea, 30;
their modes of recalling the soul, 47 _sq._, 52 _sq._, 55 _sq._, 60, 67;
taboos observed by head-hunters among the, 166 _sq._

Eagle, soul in form of, 34

—— -hunters, taboos observed by, 198 _sq._

Eagle-wood, special language employed by searchers for, 404

Eating out of sacred vessels, supposed effect of, 4

—— and drinking, taboos on, 116 _sqq._;
fear of being seen in the act of, 117 _sqq._

Eggs offered to demons, 110;
reason for breaking shells of, 129 _sq._

Egypt, rules of life observed by ancient kings of, 12 _sq._

Egyptian magicians, their power of compelling the deities, 389 _sq._

Egyptians, the ancient, their conception of the soul, 28;
their practice as to souls of the dead, 68 _sq._;
personal names among, 322

Elder brother, his name not to be pronounced, 341

Elder-tree, cut hair and nails inserted in an, 275 _sq._

Elephant-hunters, special language employed by, 404

Eleusinian priests, their names sacred, 382 _sq._

Elfin race averse to iron, 232 _sq._

Emetic as mode of purification, 175, 245;
pretended, in auricular confession, 214

Emin Pasha, 108

Epidemics attributed to evil spirits, 30

Epimenides, the Cretan seer, 50 _n._2

Esquimaux, their conception of the soul, 27;
their dread of being photographed, 96;
or Inuit, taboos observed by hunters among the, 205 _sq._;
namesakes of the dead among the, 371

Esthonians, the, 41 _sq._, 240

Ethical evolution, 218 _sq._

—— precepts developed out of savage taboos, 214

Ethiopia, kings of, 124

Euphemisms employed for certain animals, 397 _sqq._;
for smallpox, 400, 410, 411, 416

Europe, south-eastern, superstitions as to shadows in, 89 _sq._

Evil eye, the, 116 _sq._

Ewe-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast, 9;
rebirth of ancestors among the, 369

Execution, peculiar modes of, for members of royal families, 241 _sqq._

Executioners, customs observed by, 171 _sq._, 180 _sq._

Exorcising harmful influence of strangers, 102 _sqq._

Eye, the evil, 116 _sq._

Eyeos, the, 9

Faces veiled to avert evil influences, 120 _sqq._;
of warriors blackened, 163;
of manslayers blackened, 169

_Fàdy_, taboo, 327

Fafnir and Sigurd, 324

Fairies averse to iron, 229, 232 _sq._

Fasting, custom of, 157 _n._2, 159 _n._, 161, 162, 163, 182, 183, 189,
198, 199

Father and child, supposed danger of resemblance between, 88 _sq._

—— and mother, their names not to be mentioned, 337, 341

—— in-law, his name not to be pronounced by his daughter-in-law, 335
_sqq._, 343, 345, 346;
by his son-in-law, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 344

Fathers named after their children, 331 _sqq._

Faunus, consultation of, 314

Feast of Yams, 123

Feathers worn by manslayers, 180, 186 _n._1

Feet, not to wet the, 159. _See also_ Foot

Fernando Po, taboos observed by the kings of, 8 _sq._, 115, 123, 291

Festival of the Dead among the Hurons, 367

Fetish or taboo rajah, 24

—— kings in West Africa, 22 _sqq._

Fever, euphemism for, 400

“Field speech,” a special jargon employed by reapers, 410 _sq._, 411 _sq._

Fiji, catching away souls in, 69;
War King and Sacred King in, 21;
custom as to remains of food in, 117

Fijian chief, supposed effect of using his dishes or clothes, 131

—— conception of the soul, 29 _sq._, 92

—— custom of frightening away ghosts, 170

—— notion of absence of the soul in dreams, 39 _sq._

Fingers cut off as a sacrifice, 161

Finnish hunters, 398

Fire, rule as to removing fire from priest’s house, 13;
prohibition to blow the fire with the breath, 136, 256;
in purificatory rites, 108, 109, 111, 114, 197;
tabooed, 178, 182, 256 _sq._;
new, made by friction, 286

—— and Water, kingships of, 17

Firefly, soul in form of, 67

First-fruits, offering of, 5

Fish-traps, continence observed at making, 202

Fishermen, words tabooed by, 394 _sq._, 396, 408 _sq._, 415

Fishers and hunters tabooed, 190 _sqq._

Fison, Rev. Lorimer, 30 _n._1, 40 _n._1, 92 _n._3, 131 _n._2

Fits and convulsions set down to demons, 59

Flamen Dialis, taboos observed by the, 13 _sq._, 239, 248, 257, 275, 291,
293, 315 _sq._

Flaminica, rules observed by the, 14

Flannan Islands, 392

Flesh, boiled, not to be eaten by tabooed persons, 185;
diet restricted or forbidden, 291 _sqq._

Flints, not iron, cuts to be made with, 176;
use of, prescribed in ritual, 176;
sharp, circumcision performed with, 227

Fly, soul in form of, 39

Food, remnants of, buried as a precaution against sorcery, 118, 119, 127
_sq._, 129;
magic wrought by means of refuse of, 126 _sqq._;
taboos on leaving food over, 127 _sqq._;
not to be touched with hands, 138 _sqq._, 146 _sqq._, 166, 167, 168,
169, 174, 203, 265;
objection to have food over head, 256, 257

Foods tabooed, 291 _sqq._

Foot, custom of going with only one foot shod, 311 _sqq._ _See also_ Feet

Footprint in magic, 74;
of Buddha, 275

Forgetfulness, pretence of, 189

Forks used in eating by tabooed persons, 148, 168, 169, 203

Fors, the, of Central Africa, 281

Foundation sacrifices, 89 _sqq._

Fowl used in exorcism, 106

Fowlers, words tabooed by, 393, 407 _sq._

Foxes not to be mentioned by their proper names, 396, 397

Frankish kings, their unshorn hair, 258 _sq._

Fresh meat tabooed, 143

Fumigation as a mode of ceremonial purification, 155, 177

Funerals in China, custom as to shadows at, 80. _See also_ Burial, Burials

Furfo, 230

Gabriel, the archangel, 302, 303

_Gangas_, fetish priests, 291

Garments, effect of wearing sacred, 4

Gates, sacrifice of human beings at foundations of, 90 _sq._

Gatschet, A. S., 363

Gauntlet, running the, 222

Genitals of murdered people eaten, 190 _n._2

Getae, priestly kings of the, 21

Ghost of husband kept from his widow, 143;
fear of evoking the ghost by mentioning his name, 349 _sqq._;
chased into the grave at the end of mourning, 373 _sq._

Ghosts, sacrifices to, 56, 247;
draw away the souls of their kinsfolk, 51 _sqq._;
draw out men’s shadows, 80;
as guardians of gates, 90 _sq._;
kept off by thorns, 142;
and demons averse to iron, 232 _sqq._;
fear of wounding, 237 _sq._;
swept out of house, 238;
names changed in order to deceive ghosts or to avoid attracting their
attention, 354 _sqq._

Ghosts of animals, dread of, 223

—— of the slain haunt their slayers, 165 _sqq._;
fear of the, 165 _sqq._;
sacrifices to, 166;
scaring away the, 168, 170, 171, 172, 174 _sq._;
as birds, 177 _sq._

Gilyaks, the, 370

Ginger in purificatory rites, 105, 151

Gingiro, kingdom of, 18

Girls at puberty obliged to touch everything in house, 225 _n._;
their hair torn out, 284

Goajiro Indians, 30, 350

Goat, prohibition to touch or name, 13;
transference of guilt to, 214 _sq._

—— -sucker, shadow of the, 82

God, “the most great name” of, 390

—— -man a source of danger, 132;
bound by many rules, 419 _sq._

Gods, their names tabooed, 387 _sqq._;
Xenophanes on the, 387;
human, bound by many rules, 419 _sq._ _See also_ Myths

Gold excluded from some temples, 226 _n._8

—— and silver as totems, 227 _n._

—— mines, spirits of the, treated with deference, 409 _sq._

Goldie, H., 22

Gollas, the, 149

Good Friday, 229

Goorkhas, the, 316

Gordian knot, 316 _sq._

Gran Chaco, Indians of the, 37, 38, 357

Grandfathers, grandsons named after their deceased, 370

Grandidier, A., 380 _sq._

Grandmothers, granddaughters named after their deceased, 370

Grass knotted as a charm, 305, 310

Grave, soul fetched from, 54

—— -clothes, no knots in, 310

—— -diggers, taboos observed by, 141, 142

Graves, food offered on, 53;
water poured on, as a rain-charm, 154 _sq._

Great Spirit, sacrifice of fingers to the, 161

Grebo people of Sierra Leone, 14

Greek conception of the soul, 29 _n._1

—— customs as to manslayers, 188

Grey, Sir George, 364 _sq._

_Grihya-Sûtras_, 277

Grimm, J., 305 _n._1

Ground, prohibition to touch the, 3, 4, 6;
not to sit on the, 159, 162, 163;
not to set foot on, 180;
royal blood not to be shed on the, 241 _sqq._

Guardian deities of cities, 391

Guaycurus, the, 357

Guiana, Indians of, 324

Gypsy superstition about portraits, 100

Haida medicine-men, 31

Hair, mode of cutting the Mikado’s, 3;
cut with bronze knife, 14;
of manslayers shaved, 175, 176;
of slain enemy, fetish made from, 183;
not to be combed, 187, 203, 208, 264;
tabooed, 258 _sqq._;
of kings, priests, and wizards unshorn, 258 _sqq._;
regarded as the seat of a god or spirit, 258, 259, 263;
kept unshorn at certain times, 260 _sqq._;
offered to rivers, 261;
of children unshorn, 263;
magic wrought through clippings of, 268 _sqq._, 275, 277, 278 _sq._;
cut or combed out may cause rain and thunderstorms, 271, 272, 282;
clippings of, used as hostages, 272 _sq._;
infected by virus of taboo, 283 _sq._;
cut as a purificatory ceremony, 283 _sqq._;
of women after childbirth shaved and burnt, 284;
loosened at childbirth, 297 _sq._;
loosened in magical and religious ceremonies, 310 _sq._

—— and nails of sacred persons not cut, 3, 4, 16

—— and nails, cut, disposal of, 267 _sqq._;
deposited on or under trees, 14, 275 _sq._, 286;
deposited in sacred places, 274 _sqq._;
stowed away in any secret place, 276 _sqq._;
kept for use at the resurrection, 279 _sqq._;
burnt to prevent them from falling into the hands of sorcerers, 281
_sqq._

—— -cutting, ceremonies at, 264 _sqq._

Hands tabooed, 138, 140 _sqq._, 146 _sqq._, 158, 159 _n._, 265;
food not to be touched with, 138 _sqq._, 146 _sqq._, 166, 167, 168, 169,
174, 265;
defiled, 174;
not to be clasped, 298

Hanun, King of Moab, 273

Hawaii, 72, 106;
customs as to chiefs and shadows in, 255

Head, stray souls restored to, 47, 48, 52, 53 _sq._, 64, 67;
prohibition to touch the, 142, 183, 189, 252 _sq._, 254, 255 _sq._;
plastered with mud, 182;
the human, regarded as sacred, 252 _sqq._;
tabooed, 252 _sqq._;
supposed to be the residence of spirits, 252;
objection to have any one overhead, 253 _sqq._;
washing the, 253

—— -hunters, customs of, 30, 36, 71 _sq._, 111, 166 _sq._, 169 _sq._

Headache caused by clipped hair, 270 _sq._, 282

Heads of manslayers shaved, 177

Hearne, S., quoted, 184 _sqq._

Hebesio, god of thunder, 257

Hercules and Alcmena, 298 _sq._

Herero, the, 151, 177, 225 _n._

Hermotimus of Clazomenae, 50

Hidatsa Indians, taboos observed by eagle-hunters among the, 198 _sq._

Hierapolis, temple of Astarte at, 286

Hiro, thief-god, 69

Historical tradition hampered by the taboo on the names of the dead, 363
_sqq._

Holiness and pollution not differentiated by savages, 224

Hollis, A. C., 200 _n._3

Holy water, sprinkling with, 285 _sq._

Homicides. See Manslayers

Homoeopathic magic, 151, 152, 207, 295, 298

Honey-wine, continence observed at brewing, 200

Hooks to catch souls, 30 _sq._, 51

Horse, prohibition to see a, 9;
prohibition to ride, 13

Hos of Togoland, the, 295, 301

Hostages, clipped hair used as, 272 _sq._

Hottentots, the, 220

House, ceremony at entering a new, 63 _sq._;
taboos on quitting the, 122 _sqq._

—— building, custom as to shadows at, 81, 89 _sq._;
continence observed at, 202

Howitt, A. W., 269

Huichol Indians, 197

Human gods bound by many rules, 419 _sq._

—— sacrifices at foundation of buildings, 90 _sq._

Humbe, a kingdom of Angola, 6

Hunters use knots as charms, 306;
words tabooed by, 396, 398, 399, 400, 402, 404, 410

—— and fishers tabooed, 190 _sqq._

Hurons, the, 366;
their conception of the soul, 27;
their Festival of the Dead, 367

Husband’s ghost kept from his widow, 143

—— name not to be pronounced by his wife, 335, 336, 337, 338, 339

Husbands and wives, difference of language between, 347 _sq._

Huzuls, the, 270, 314

Ilocanes of Luzon, 44

Imagination, death from, 135 _sqq._

Imitative or homoeopathic magic, 295

Impurity of manslayers, 167

Incas of Peru, 279

Incisions made in bodies of warriors as a preparation for war, 161;
in bodies of slain, 176;
in bodies of manslayers, 174, 176, 180.
_See also_ Cuts

Incontinence of young people supposed to be fatal to the king, 6

India, names of animals tabooed in, 401 _sqq._

Indians of North America, their customs on the war-path, 158 _sqq._;
their fear of naming the dead, 351 _sqq._

Infants tabooed, 255

Infection, supposed, of lying-in women, 150 _sqq._

Infidelity of wife supposed to be fatal to hunter, 197

Initiation, custom of covering the mouth after, 122;
taboos observed by novices at, 141 _sq._, 156 _sq._;
new names given at, 320

Injury to a man’s shadow conceived as an injury to the man, 78 _sqq._

Inspiration, primitive theory of, 248

Intercourse with wives enjoined before war, 164 _n._1;
enjoined on manslayers, 176. _See also_ Continence

Intoxication accounted inspiration, 248, 249, 250

Inuit. _See_ Esquimaux

Ireland, taboos observed by the ancient kings of, 11 _sq._

Irish custom as to a fall, 68;
as to friends’ blood, 244 _sq._

Iron not to be touched, 167;
tabooed, 176, 225 _sqq._;
used as a charm against spirits, 232 _sqq._

—— instruments, use of, tabooed, 205, 206

—— rings as talismans, 235

Iroquois, the, 352, 385

Isis and Ra, 387 _sqq._

Israelites, rules of ceremonial purity observed by the Israelites in war,
157 _sq._, 177

Issini, the, 171

Itonamas, the, 31

Ivy, prohibition to touch or name, 13 _sq._

Ja-Luo, the, 79

Jackals, tigers called, 402, 403

Jackson, Professor Henry, 21 _n._3

Japan, the Mikado of, 2 _sqq._;
Kaempfer’s history of, 3 _n._2;
Caron’s account of, 4 _n._2

Jars, souls conjured into, 70

Jason and Pelias, 311 _sq._

Java, 34, 35

Jebu, the king of, 121

Jewish hunters, their customs as to blood of game, 241

Jinn, the servants of their magical names, 390

Journey, purificatory ceremonies on return from a, 111 _sqq._;
continence observed on a, 204;
hair kept unshorn on a, 261

Jumping over wife or children as a ceremony, 112, 164 _n._1

Juno Lucina, 294

Junod, H. A., 152 _sqq._, 420 _n._1

Jupiter Liber, temple of, at Furfo, 230

_Ka_, the ancient Egyptian, 28

Kachins of Burma, 200

Kaempfer’s _History of Japan_, 3 _sq._

Kafirs of the Hindoo Koosh, 13 _n._6, 14 _n._2

Kaitish, the, 82, 295

Kalamba, the, a chief in the Congo region, 114

_Kami_, the Japanese word for god, 2 _n._2

Kamtchatkans, their attempts to deceive mice, 399

Karaits, the, 95

Karen-nis of Burma, the, 13

Karens, the Red, of Burma, 292;
their recall of the soul, 43;
their customs at funerals, 51

Karo-Bataks, 52. _See also_ Battas

_Katikiro_, the, of Uganda, 145 _n._4

Kavirondo, 176

Kayans of Borneo, 32, 47, 110, 164, 239

Kei Islanders, 53

Kenyahs of Borneo, 43, 415

Key as symbol of delivery in childbed, 296

Keys as charms against devils and ghosts, 234, 235, 236;
as amulets, 308. _See also_ Locks

Khonds, rebirth of ancestors among the, 368 _sq._

Kickapoos, the, 171

Kidd, Dudley, 88 _n._

King not to be overshadowed, 83

—— of the Night, 23

King’s Evil, the, 134

Kings, supernatural powers attributed to, 1;
beaten before their coronation, 18;
forbidden to see their mothers, 86;
portraits of, not stamped on coins, 98 _sq._;
guarded against the magic of strangers, 114 _sq._;
forbidden to use foreign goods, 115;
not to be seen eating and drinking, 117 _sqq._;
concealed by curtains, 120 _sq._;
forbidden to leave their palaces, 122 _sqq._;
compelled to dance, 123;
punished or put to death, 124;
not to be touched, 132, 225 _sq._;
their hair unshorn, 258 _sq._;
foods tabooed to, 291 _sq._;
names of, tabooed, 374 _sqq._;
taboos observed by, identical with those observed by commoners, 419
_sq._

Kings and chiefs tabooed, 131 _sqq._;
their spittle guarded against sorcerers, 289 _sq._

—— fetish or religious, in West Africa, 22 _sqq._

Kingsley, Miss Mary H., 22 _n._3, 71, 123 _n._2, 251

Kiowa Indians, 357, 360

Klallam Indians, the, 354

Knife as charm against spirits, 232, 233, 234, 235

Knives not to be left edge upwards, 238;
not used at funeral banquets, 238

Knot, the Gordian, 316 _sq._

Knots, prohibition to wear, 13;
untied at childbirth, 294, 296 _sq._, 297 _sq._;
thought to prevent the consummation of marriage, 299 _sqq._;
thought to cause sickness, disease, and all kinds of misfortune, 301
_sqq._;
used to cure disease, 303 _sqq._;
used to win a lover or capture a runaway slave, 305 _sq_.;
used as protective amulets, 306 _sqq._;
used as charms by hunters and travellers, 306;
as a charm to protect corn from devils, 308 _sq._;
on corpses untied, 310

—— and locks, magical virtue of, 310, 313

—— and rings tabooed, 293 _sqq._

Koita, the, 168

Koryak, the, 32

Kruijt, A. C., 319

Kublai Khan, 242

Kukulu, a priestly king, 5

Kwakiutl, the, 53;
customs observed by cannibals among the, 188 _sqq._;
change of names in summer and winter among the, 386

_Kwun_, the spirit of the head, 252;
supposed to reside in the hair, 266 _sq._

Lafitau, J. F., 365 _sq._

Lampong in Sumatra, 10

Lamps to light the ghosts to their old homes, 371

Language of husbands and wives, difference between, 347 sq.;
of men and women, difference between, 348 _sq._

—— change of, caused by taboo on the names of the dead, 358 _sqq._, 375;
caused by taboo on the names of chiefs and kings, 375, 376 _sqq._

—— special, employed by hunters, 396, 398, 399, 400, 402, 404, 410;
employed by searchers for eagle-wood and _lignum aloes_, 404;
employed by searchers for camphor, 405 _sqq._;
employed by miners, 407, 409;
employed by reapers at harvest, 410 _sq._, 411 _sq._;
employed by sailors at sea, 413 _sqq._

Laos, 306

Lapps, the, 294;
their customs after killing a bear, 221;
rebirth of ancestors among the, 368

Latuka, the, 245

Leaning against a tree prohibited to warriors, 162, 163

Leavened bread, prohibition to touch, 13

Leaving food over, taboos on, 126 _sqq._

Leavings of food, magic wrought by means of, 118, 119, 126 _sqq._

Legs not to be crossed, 295, 298 _sq._

Leinster, kings of, 11

_Leleen_, the, 129

Lengua Indians of the Gran Chaco, 38, 357

Leonard, A. G., Major, 136 _sq._

Lesbos, building custom in, 89

Lewis, Rev. Thomas, 420 _n._1

Life in the blood, 241, 250

Limbs, amputated, kept by the owners against the resurrection, 281

Lion-killer, purification of, 176, 220

Lions not called by their proper names, 400

Lithuanians, the old, their funeral banquets, 238

Liver, induration of the, attributed to touching sacred chief, 133

Lizard, soul in form of, 38

Loango, taboos observed by kings of, 8, 9;
taboos observed by heir to throne of, 291

—— king of, forbidden to see a white man’s house, 115;
not to be seen eating or drinking, 117 _sq._;
confined to his palace, 123;
refuse of his food buried, 129

Locks unlocked at childbirth, 294, 296;
thought to prevent the consummation of marriage, 299;
as amulets, 308, 309;
unlocked to facilitate death, 309

—— and knots, magical virtue of, 309 _sq._ _See also_ Keys

Lolos, the, 43

Look back, not to, 157

Loom, men not allowed to touch a, 164

Loss of the shadow regarded as ominous, 88

Lovers won by knots, 305

Lucan, 390

Lucian, 270, 382

Lucina, 294, 398 _sq._

Lucky names, 391 _n._1

Lycaeus, sanctuary of Zeus on Mount, 88

Lycosura, sanctuary of the Mistress at, 227 _n._, 314

Lying-in women, dread of, 150 _sqq._;
sacred, 151

Mack, an adventurer, 19

Macusi Indians, 36, 159 _n._

Madagascar, names of chiefs and kings tabooed in, 378 _sqq._

Magic wrought by means of refuse of food, 126 _sqq._;
sympathetic, 126, 130, 164, 201, 204, 258, 268, 287;
homoeopathic, 151, 152, 207, 295, 298;
contagious, 246, 268, 272;
wrought through clippings of hair, 268 _sqq._, 275, 277, 278 _sq._;
wrought on a man through his name, 318, 320 _sqq._

Magicians, Egyptian, their power of compelling the deities, 389 _sq._

Mahafalys of Madagascar, the, 10

Makalaka, the, 369

Makololo, the, 281

Malagasy language, dialectical variations of, 378 _sq._, 380

Malanau tribes of Borneo, 406

Malay conception of the soul as a bird, 34 _sqq._
—— miners, fowlers, and fishermen, special forms of speech employed by,
407 _sqq._
—— Peninsula, art of abducting human souls in the, 73 _sqq._

Maldives, the, 274

Mandalay, 90, 125

Mandan Indians, 97

Mandelings of Sumatra, 296

Mangaia, separation of religious and civil authority in, 20

Mangaians, the, 87

Manipur, hill tribes of, 292

Mannikin, the soul conceived as a, 26 _sqq._

Manslayers, purification of, 165 _sqq._;
secluded, 165 _sqq._;
tabooed, 165 _sqq._;
haunted by ghosts of slain, 165 _sqq._;
their faces blackened, 169;
their bodies painted, 175, 178, 179, 180, 186 _n._1;
their hair shaved, 175, 177

Maori chiefs, their sanctity or taboo, 134 _sqq._;
their heads sacred, 256
—— language, synonyms in the, 381

Maoris, persons who have handled the dead tabooed among the, 138 _sq._;
tabooed on the war-path, 157

Marco Polo, 242, 243

Marianne Islands, 288

Mariner, W., quoted, 140

Mariners at sea, special language employed by, 413 _sqq._

Marquesans, the, 31;
their regard for the sanctity of the head, 254 _sq._;
their customs as to the hair, 261 _sq._;
their dread of sorcery, 268

Marquesas Islands, 178

Marriage, the consummation of, prevented by knots and locks, 299 _sqq._

Masai, the, 200, 309, 329, 354 _sq._, 356, 361

Matthews, Dr. Washington, 385

Meal sprinkled to keep off evil spirits, 112

Measuring shadows, 89 _sq._
—— -tape deified, 91 _sq._

Mecca, pilgrims to, not allowed to wear knots and rings, 293 _sq._

Medes, law of the, 121

Mekeo district of New Guinea, 24

Men injured through their shadows, 78 _sqq._
—— and women, difference of language between, 348 _sq._

Menedemus, 227

Menstruation, women tabooed at, 145 _sqq._

Menstruous women, dread of, 145 _sqq._, 206;
avoidance of, by hunters, 211

Mentras, the, 404

Merolla da Sorrento, 137

Mice thought to understand human speech, 399;
not to be called by their proper names, 399, 415

Midas and his ass’s ears, 258 _n._1;
king of Gordium, 316

Mikado, rules of life of the, 2 _sqq._;
supposed effect of using his dishes or clothes, 131;
the cutting of his hair and nails, 265

Mikados, their relations to the Tycoons, 19

Miklucho-Maclay, Baron N. von, 109

Milk, custom as to drinking, 119;
prohibition to drink, 141;
not to be drunk by wounded men, 174 _sq._;
wine called, 249 _n._2;
and beef not to be eaten at the same meal, 292

Milkmen of the Todas, taboos observed by the holy, 15 _sqq._

Miller, Hugh, 40

Minahassa, a district of Celebes, 99;
the Alfoors of, 63

Minangkabauers of Sumatra, 32, 36, 41

Miners, special language employed by, 407, 409

Mirrors, superstitions as to, 93;
covered after a death, 94 _sq._

Miscarriage in childbed, dread of, 149, 152 _sqq._;
supposed danger of concealing a, 211, 213

Moab, Arabs of, 280;
their custom of shaving prisoners, 273

Moabites, King David’s treatment of the, 273 _sq._

Mohammed bewitched by a Jew, 302 _sq._

Mongols, their recall of the soul, 44;
sacred books of the, 384

Montezuma, 121

Monumbos, the, 169, 238

Mooney, J., 318 _sqq._

Moquis, the, 228

Moral guilt regarded as a corporeal pollution, 217 _sq._

Morality developed out of taboo, 213 _sq._;
shifted from a natural to a supernatural basis, 213;
survival of savage taboos in civilised, 218 _sq._

Morice, A. G., 146 _sq._

Mosyni or Mosynoeci, the, 124

Mother-in-law, the savage’s dread of his, 83 _sqq._;
her name not to be mentioned by her son-in-law, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342,
343, 344, 345, 346

Mothers, African kings forbidden to see their, 86;
named after their children, 332, 333

Mourners, customs observed by, 31 _sq._, 159 n.;
tabooed, 138 _sqq._;
bodies of, smeared with mud or clay, 182 _n._2;
hair and nails of, cut at end of mourning, 285 _sq._

Mourning of slayers for the slain, 181

Mouse, soul in form of, 37, 39 _n._2

Mouth closed to prevent escape of soul, 31, 33;
soul in the, 33;
covered to prevent entrance of demons, etc., 122

Muata Jamwo, the, 118, 290

Mud smeared on feet of bed, 14;
plastered on head, 182

Munster, kings of, 11

Murderers, taboos imposed on, 187 _sq._

Murrams, the, of Manipur, 292

Muysca Indians, 121

Myths of gods and spirits to be told only in spring and summer, 384;
to be told only in winter, 385 _sq._;
not to be told by day, 384 _sq._

Nails, prohibition to cut finger-nails, 194;
of children not pared, 262 _sq._

—— and hair, cut, disposal of, 267 _sqq._;
deposited in sacred places, 274 _sqq._;
stowed away in any secret place, 276 _sqq._;
kept for use at the resurrection, 279 _sqq._;
burnt to prevent them from falling into the hands of sorcerers, 281
_sqq._

Nails, iron, used as charms against fairies, demons, and ghosts, 233, 234,
236

—— parings of, used in rain-charms, 271, 272;
swallowed by treaty-makers, 246, 274

Name, the personal, regarded as a vital part of the man, 318 _sqq._;
identified with the soul, 319;
the same, not to be borne by two living persons, 370

Names of relations tabooed, 335 _sqq._;
changed to deceive ghosts, 354 _sqq._;
of common objects changed when they are the names of the dead, 358
_sqq._, 375, or the names of chiefs and kings, 375, 376
_sqq._;
of ancestors bestowed on their reincarnations, 368 _sq._;
of kings and chiefs tabooed, 374 _sqq._;
of supernatural beings tabooed, 384 _sqq._;
of gods tabooed, 387 _sqq._;
of spirits and gods, magical virtue of, 389 _sqq._;
of Roman gods not to be mentioned, 391 _n._1;
lucky, 391 _n._1;
of dangerous animals not to be mentioned, 396 _sqq._

Names, new, given to the sick and old, 319;
new, at initiation, 320

—— of the dead tabooed, 349 _sqq._;
not borne by the living, 354;
revived after a time, 365 _sqq._

—— personal, tabooed, 318 sqq.;
kept secret from fear of magic, 320 _sqq._;
different in summer and winter, 386

Namesakes of the dead change their names to avoid attracting the attention
of the ghost, 355 _sqq._;
of deceased persons regarded as their reincarnations, 365 _sqq._

Naming the dead a serious crime, 352, 354;
of children, solemnities at the, connected with belief in the
reincarnation of ancestors in their namesakes, 372

Namosi, in Fiji, 264