underlying link of connection between the kind of omen or the nature
of its interpretation and the issue it signifies; and this connection
it is, however slight or fanciful, that maintains the belief in the
further bond of omen and issue.
III
That such connections may travel still farther along the path of
analogy without losing force, is well illustrated in the observances
regarding the use of names. The connection seems to pass from thing
to image, to name, much as picture-writing passes into word-writing.
The use of idols is abundant evidence of the extent of this
mental operation; what is done to or for the idol is analogically
transferred to the god, and the confusion may become so gross that
when the oracles of two gods disagree, their idols are knocked
against each other, and the one that breaks is declared in the wrong.
A drawing or other rough resemblance may do service for the thing,
especially in sacrifices of objects of value. By similar steps the
name becomes an essential portion of the object or person named,
and analogies formed through the name are applied to the thing.
Accordingly, a man may be bewitched through his name; hence there
arise the most elaborate and rigid observances prohibiting the use
of the name, which are grouped together in the complex code of the
Taboo,--that "dread tyrant of savage life, ... the Inquisition of the
lower culture, only more terrible and effective than the infamous
'Holy Office'" (Clodd). For uncomplicated illustrations of name
analogies, however, we must go to other customs than the Taboo. It
is related that in the British war with Nepaul, Goree Sah had sent
orders to "find out the name of the commander of the British army;
write it upon a piece of paper; take it some rice and turmeric;
say the great incantation three times; having said it, send for
some plum-tree wood, and therewith burn it;" thus was the life of
the commander to be destroyed. Similarly it was suspected that the
King of Dahomey refused to sign a letter, written in his name to
the President of the French Republic, for fear that M. Carnot might
bewitch him through it (cited by Clodd). "Barbaric man believes
that his name is a vital part of himself, and therefore that the
names of other men and of superhuman beings are also vital parts
of themselves. He further believes that to know the name is to put
its owner, whether he be deity, ghost, or mortal, in the power of
another, involving risk of harm or destruction to the named. He
therefore takes all kinds of precautions to conceal his name, often
from his friend, and always from his foe" (Clodd). In Borneo the
name of a sickly child is changed to deceive the evil spirits that
torment it. "When the life of a Kwapa Indian is supposed to be in
danger from illness, he at once seeks to get rid of his name, and
sends to another member of the tribe, who goes to the chief and buys
a new name, which is given to the patient. With the abandonment of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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