EVOLUTION OF CEREMONIAL GOVERNMENT. 25 



child. The Malays, says St. John, have " the same custom as the 

 Dyaks of taking the name of their first-born, as Pa Sipi, the father of 

 Sipi." Marsden names the usage as common in Sumatra; and Ellis 

 illustrates it from Madagascar. It is so too among some Indian hill- 

 tribes : the Kasias " address each other by the names of their children, 

 as Pabobon, father of Bobon ! " Africa also furnishes instances. Be- 

 chuanas addressing Mr. Moffat used to say, " I speak to the father of 

 Mary ; " and in the Pacific States of North America there are people so 

 solicitous to bear this primitive name of honor that, until a young man 

 has children, his dog stands to him in the position of a son, and he is 

 known as the father of his dog. 



The supremacy associated with age in patriarchal groups and in so- 

 cieties derived by composition from patriarchal groups, shown primarily 

 in that honoring of parents which, as in the Jewish commandments, is 

 put next to the worship of God, and secondarily in the honoring of old 

 men in general, gives rise to a kindred but divergent group of titles. 

 Age being dignified, words indicating seniority become names of dignity. 



The beginnings may be discerned among the uncivilized : councils 

 being formed of the older men, there arises a connection between the 

 local name for an older man and an office of power and therefore of 

 honor. * Merely noting this, it will suffice if we trace among European 

 peoples the growth of titles hence resulting. Among the Romans, 

 senator, or member of the senatiis, words having the same root with 

 senex, was the name for a member of the assembly of elders ; and in 

 early times these senators or elders, otherwise called pati^es, represented 

 the component tribes : father and elder being thus used as equivalents. 

 From the further cognate word senior, we have, in derived languages, 

 signore, seigneur, senhor ; first applied to head-men, rulers, or lords, 

 and then by diffusion becoming names of honor for those of inferior 

 rank. The same thing has happened with ealdor or aldor. This, says 

 Max Muller, " like many other titles of rank in the various Teutonic 

 tongues, is derived from an adjective implying age ; " so that " earl " 

 and " alderman," both diverging from this root, are names of honor, 

 similarly resulting from that social superiority which went along with 



age. 



Whether or not the German title Graf should be added, is a moot 

 point. If Max Muller is right in considering the objections of Grimm 

 to the current interpretation inadequate, then the word originally means 

 gray ; that is, gray-headed. 



We may deal briefly with the remaining titles which re illustrate, in 

 their respective ways, the general principle set forth. 



Like other names of honor that grew up in very early times, the 

 name " king" is one concerning the formation of which there are dif- 

 ferences of opinion. By general agreement, however, its remote source 



