Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 13.djvu/313

Rh of the women, who also partake of these honors, in en. These syllables you must add even to substantives and verbs in talking with them." Again, "the Samoan language contains 'a distinct and permanent vocabulary of words which politeness requires to be made use of to superiors, or on occasions of ceremony.' "Among the Javans, "on no account is any one, of whatever rank, allowed to address his superior in the common or vernacular language of the country." And of the ancient Mexican language we are told by Gallantin that there is "a special form called Reverential, which pervades the whole language, and is found in no other. . . . this is believed to be the only one [language] in which every word uttered by the inferior reminds him of his social position."

The most general of the indirectnesses which etiquette introduces into forms of address appears to have its root in the primitive superstition respecting proper names. Conceiving that a man's name forms part of his individuality, and that possession of his name gives some power over him, savages almost everywhere are reluctant to disclose names, and consequently avoid that use of them in speech by which they are made known to hearers. Whether this is the sole cause, or whether, apart from this, utterance of a man's name is felt to be a kind of liberty taken with him, the fact is that among all races names acquire a kind of sacredness, and taking a name in vain is interdicted: especially to inferiors when addressing superiors. One curious result is that, as, in early stages, personal names are derived from objects, the names of objects have to be disused and others substituted. Among the Caffres "a wife may not publicly pronounce the i-gama [the name given at birth] of her husband or any of his brothers; nor may she use the interdicted word in its ordinary sense. . . . The chief's i-gama is withdrawn from the language of his people." Again, "the hereditary appellation of the chief of Pango-Pango [in Samoa] being now Maunga, or Mountain, that word must never be used for a hill in his presence, but a courtly term. . . substituted." And then, where there exist proper names of a developed kind, there are still kindred restrictions on the general use of them; as in Siam, where "the name of the king must not be uttered by a subject: he is always referred to by a periphrasis, such as 'the master of life,' 'the lord of the land,' 'the supreme head;' "and as in China, where "the 'old man of the house,' 'excellent honorable one,' and 'venerable great prince,' are terms used by a visitor to designate the father of his host."

Allied with avoidance of the proper name in addressing a superior, there is, as sundry of the above instances show, avoidance of the personal pronouns; which also establish with the individual addressed a relation too direct to be allowed where distance is to be maintained. In Siam, as already exemplified, when asking the king's commands the pronominal form is, as much as possible, evaded; and that this usage is general among the Siamese is shown by the remark of Père Bruguière,