4 02 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



esses do for the dead king, and for the god who evolves from the 

 dead king. 



In societies that have their ceremonial governments largely devel- 

 oped, the homology is further shown. As such societies ordinarily 

 have many gods of various powers, severally served by their official 

 glorifiers, so they have various grades of living potentates, severally 

 served by men who assert their greatness and demand respect. In 

 Samoa, " a herald runs a few paces before, calling out, as he meets 

 any one, the name of the chief who is coming." With a Madagascar 

 chief in his palanquin, " one or two men with assagais, or spears, in 

 their hands, ran along in front shouting out the name of the chief." 

 In advance of an embassador in Japan there " first walked four men 

 with brooms, such as always precede the retinue of a great lord, in 

 order to admonish the people with cries of ' Stay, stay ! ' which 

 means, ' Sit, or bow you down ; ' " and in China a magistrate making 

 a progress is preceded by men bearing " red boards having the rank 

 of the officer painted on them, running and shouting to the street- 

 passengers : ' Retire, retire ! keep silence, and clear the way ! ' Gong- 

 strikers follow, denoting at certain intervals by so many strokes their 

 master's grade and office." 



Another parallelism exists between the official who proclaims the 

 king's will and the official who proclaims the will of the deity be- 

 tween the interpreter who conveys statements to the king and brings 

 back his reply, and the priest who conveys the petitions or questions 

 of worshipers, and explains the oracular response. In many places 

 where regal power is extreme, the monarch is either invisible or can- 

 not be directly communicated with : the living ruler thus simulating 

 the dead and divine ruler, and requiring kindred intermediators. It 

 was thus in ancient Mexico. Of Montezuma II. it is said that " no 

 commoner was to look him in the face, and if one did, he died for it ; " 

 and further, that he did not communicate with any one " except by 

 an interpreter." In Nicaragua the caziques " carried their exclusion 

 so far as to receive messages from other chiefs only through officers 

 delegated for that purpose." So of Peru, where some of the rulers 

 " had the custom not to be seen by their subjects but on rare occa- 

 sions," we read that at the first interview with the Spaniards, " Ata- 

 huallpa gave no answer, nor did he even raise his eyes to look at the 

 captain (Hernando de Soto). But a chief replied to what the captain 

 had said." With the Chibchas " the first of the court officers was 

 the crier, as they said that he was the medium by which the will of 

 the prince was explained." Throughout Africa at the present time 

 like customs have generated like appliances. Speke tells us that, "in 

 conversation with the King of Uganda, the words must always be 

 transmitted through one or more of his officers." Among the inland 

 negroes " it is quite beneath the dignity of an attdh to reply from 

 the throne except through his ' mouth,' or prime-minister." In Da- 



