be stoned to death or burned."1 So, too, the blood of sacrifice was not allowed to be spilled on the ground either in ancient Egypt or in ancient India; according to the Grihya Sutra,2 "the effused blood, which at the time of immolation was held in a vessel, should be thrown on bundles of kúśa grass." Strabo, too, says of an Indian tribe that they do not shed the blood of the victims they offer to the gods, but strangle the animals. And in ancient Egypt, "when an ox was sacrificed at the grave, a priestly official caught in a vessel the blood which flowed from the throat when cut (cf. Pyramid text, Teta, line 144)."4 Even to see a thing taboo is dangerous. Blood therefore must not be seen, and in ancient India, it appears from a Prayoga,5 "the institutor of the sacrifice and the priests should sit during the operation with their faces averted, so as not to behold the sanguinary work." Naturally, therefore, the shedder of blood is regarded as taboo. Amongst the Yumos of Colorado the man-slayer is taboo for a month, during which time he must fast; and the Kaffir is "unclean" after a battle.7 Animal blood produces the same effects. The Hottentot after a hunt must purify himself from the blood of the animals he has slain.8

The "sanctity" or "uncleanness" of the new-born child and its mother may next be illustrated. In West Africa, "after childbirth, the mother is considered unclean for seven days." The Leaf-Wearers of Orissa also seclude a woman after childbirth for seven days.10 On the Loango Coast the mother is taboo for as long as six months.1 In Celebes she is pamali (= taboo) for a period the length of which is not stated.12 Amongst the Australian tribes of lat. 31° 0′ S., long. 138° 55′ E., " for a short time after birth of child she

1 Hakluyt, Historie of the West Indies, Decade vii. ch. 10.

2 Quoted by Rajendralála Mitra, Indo-Aryans, i. 365.

4 A. Wiedemann in Am Urquell, iii. 114.

3 P. 710.

"MS. No. 1552, Sanskrit College of Calcutta, quoted by Rajendralála Mitra, Indo-Aryans, i. 372.

Bastian, Der Mensch, iii. 24.

8 Ibid.

7 lbid.

9 Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples, 233.

19 Journal of the Anthropological Society, III. cxxxvi. 11 Bastian, Loango Kriste, i. 184.

12 Waitz-Gerland, Anthropologie, vi. 355.

"5

is considered unclean." 1 In Central Australia "the mother is isolated until she is able to leave her seclusion with the baby."2 For the Australians generally, one moon is the length of time stated. Being herself taboo, she tabooes everything with which she comes in contact; therefore, on the Amazon," when a birth takes place in the house, everything is taken out of it, even the pans and pots, and bows and arrows, till next day"; and in Western Africa the mother can touch nothing without rendering it also unclean." The vessels she has used must therefore, like those of the Mikado, be burned; and her hair-for it conveys the infection of taboo-be likewise burned. Persons taboo cannot take food into their hands without "infecting' it and rendering it unfit for consumption. The Kaniagmut mother therefore must be fed by others, and they, to avoid the contagion, must not touch her but offer the food on a stick. In Travancore the Veddah father shares the taboo, and dare not eat anything but roots. Among the Piojés of Putumayo, both parents fast for days after the birth of a child.R The Caribs, too, fasted on the occasion. Finally, the taboo is removed by some mode of purification: amongst the Leaf-Wearers of Orissa the woman bathes and a feast is made. Amongst the Alfoers, not only must the mother be purified in running water, but, on the return from the stream, the whole village must beat the father with sticks, wishing good-luck to the new-born child." On the Gold Coast, when three months have elapsed, the mother "makes offerings to the tutelary deity of the family; and then, attired in her best clothes, and covered with gold ornaments, she pays visits to her friends and neighbours, accompanied by a band of singing women, who sing songs of thanksgiving for her safe delivery."

"10

The new-born child also possesses the taboo-infection in a high degree. Just as the Polynesian chief rendered the

1 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxiv. 2. 168.

2 Ibid. 183.

4 Wallace, Travels on the Amazon, 345.

Journal of the Anthropological Institute, viii. 222.

7 Müller, Geschichte der Amerikanischen Ur-religionen, 212. 8 Journal of the Anthropological Society, III. cxxxvi.

Bastian, Oest. Asien, v. 270.

10 Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples, 233.

ground on which he trod taboo, so amongst the Mexicans children on the day of birth were so taboo they might not be put upon the ground.1 Amongst the Dyaks, as commonly in modern European folk-lore, new-born children are the especial prey of evil spirits,2 that is to say are taboo, for the restrictions of taboo are frequently thus explained, when the institution itself has otherwise perished. The child, like the mother, being thus "infectious," must be purified. Amongst the Caribs, the purification was effected by sprinkling the child with some of the father's blood. Amongst the Alfoers, the child was washed in swine's blood. On the Gold Coast rum is squirted over the child by the father.5 The rum is a substitute or surrogate for blood. Finally, in Polynesia, the Tohunga or priest dips a green twig into water and sprinkles the child's head, or else immerses the infant totally. The common custom of washing the new-born child is probably to be regarded as originally ceremonial rather than cleanly in intent. Amongst the Damaras, "a new-born child is washed -the only time he is ever washed in his life-then dried and greased, and the ceremony is over.""

The perfect parallel between the three notions of uncleanness,"" holiness," and taboo pure and simple, is well marked in the case of corpses-with which our list of things inherently taboo concludes. As contact with what is holy or taboo makes a thing holy or taboo, so in West Africa—and indeed we may say universally-" those persons who have touched the corpse are considered unclean." 8 As the newborn child or a "tapued person" tabooes the ground he touches, so amongst the Buryats the corpse of a Shaman is placed "on a felt carpet, so that it be not defiled by contact with the ground"; and a lingering survival of this feeling is probably the explanation of some modern European folklore, e.g. in the Tirol a corpse must be conveyed by the highroad; 10 in some parts of England the conveyance of a corpse.

9

1 Bastian, Oest. Asien, v. 41.

3 Müller, loc. cit.

15 Ellis, loc. cit.

7 Galton, South Africa, 190.

2 Ibid. 47.

4 Bastian, op. cit. v. 270.

6 Waitz-Gerland, Anthropologie, vi. 132 and 362.

Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples, 241.

9 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxiv. 2. 135.

10 Bastian, Der Mensch, ii. 329.

over private property is supposed to give a right of way. That contact with a corpse, like contact with things holy or taboo, renders special vestments necessary, has been already mentioned. Here we need only add one quotation to show that the reason is that the garments are rendered useless, and therefore, sometimes at least, must be destroyed. On the Slave Coast, "at the end of the period of mourning the widows put on clean cloths, the old cloths being burned. At Agweh, men who have lost their head wives do this also."1 Not only are clothes taboo but the house also, either for a certain period (eight days amongst the Hill Dyaks,2 one according to the funeral law of Ceos 3), or altogether, in which case the house is deserted or destroyed (" usually the apartment in which the deceased is buried is closed, and never used again, and sometimes the roof is removed " 4), just as amongst the Ewe-speaking peoples the house of a person struck by the lightning-god is plundered, and even in the Middle Ages a murderer's house was formally and solemnly pulled down.5 That death, like the service of the gods, makes the day

which it takes place taboo for other purposes, has been already pointed out, as also that the very name of the deceased or of a god may be tabooed. Again, those who have touched holy things, or are-like the priest and priestess of Artemis Hymnia themselves holy, may not eat like other people, i.e. may not touch food with their hands, and on the same ground, namely, that they would taboo their own food; "those who attended the deceased were most careful not to handle food, and for days were fed by others as if they were helpless infants."7 Hence some peoples, pushing things to their logical conclusion, fast altogether in mourning, as also in the case of vows (for persons under a vow are dedicate and sacred to the god 1 Ellis, Ewe-speaking Peoples, 160.

2 Waitz-Gerland, Anthropologie, vi. 355.

Roehl, Inser. Ant. 395.

4 Ellis, Yoruba-speaking Peoples, 160. Cf. Dobrizhoffer, History of the Abipones, ii. 273, "the house which he (the deceased) inhabited they pull entirely to pieces"; Im Thurn, Indians of Guiana, 225, " a feast is celebrated, and the house is then deserted for ever"; Dorman, Primitive Superstitions, "the Ojibways pulled down the house in which anyone had died "; so, too, the Navajos, Seminoles, Arkansas, and New English tribes.

"Post, Geschlechtsgenossenschaft, 113.

7 Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia, 228.

6

Pausanias, viii. 13.

to whom the vow is made). Fasting was common at such times (i.e. mourning), and they who did so ate nothing during the day, but had a meal at night; reminding us of what David said when mourning the death of Abner: So do God to me and more also, if I taste bread or ought else till the sun be down."1 Amongst the Ewe-speaking peoples, "the relatives must fast.” 2 Amongst the Tshi-speaking peoples, "from the moment of death, the relatives of the deceased, and the members of the household, abstain from food and continue fasting as long as their strength permits."3 Amongst the Yoruba-speaking peoples, " usage requires them to refuse all food, at least for the first twenty-four hours, after which they usually allow themselves to be persuaded to take some nourishment."4 The Caribs also fasted during mourning.5

Holy persons, such as the Selli, and tabooed persons, e.g. candidates prepared for initiation in the Eleusinia, generally may not wash, for fear, probably, lest the sanctity should be communicated by the water to other persons or things, in the same way as the impurity of the murderer in Greece might be conveyed by the offerings used in his purification. The hair and nail-parings of holy persons are also capable of conveying the taboo-infection. Hence they either remove their hair before entering into the taboo-state, or else allow it to grow during that period and remove and dispose of it carefully afterwards. These restrictions are common to mourners, as well as to persons under a vow, or otherwise sacred. In Central Africa, "while a woman's husband is absent, she goes without anointing her head or washing her face"; and amongst the ancient Mexicans the relatives of a merchant abroad did not wash their heads or faces 7-a restriction which was probably part of a vow for the safety of the absent one. In the Miaotze tribe, at a parent's death the son remains in the house forty-nine days without washing his face; and when it is said of the Leaf-Wearers of Orissa that the only death ceremonies known to them are

8

1 Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia, 228. 3 Ellis, 239.

5 Bastian, Der Mensch, ii. 328. 6 Macdonald, Africana, i. 81. Bastian, Der Mensch, ii. 111.

2 Ellis, 158.

4 Ellis, 157.

7

Sahagun, bk. iv. c. 19.