EVOLUTION OF CEREMONIAL GOVERNMENT. 17 



THE eyolutio:n' of ceeemoxial goyeenment. 



By HEKBEET SPENCEE. 

 VII. TITLES. 



THE undeveloped human intelligence does not initiate. Adhering 

 tenaciously to whatever his fathers taught him, the primitive man 

 deviates into novelty only through unintended modifications. That 

 which every one now knows holds of languages, that they are not de- 

 vised but evolve, equally holds of usages. To many proofs of this 

 the foregoing chapters of this series have added further proofs. 



The like holds of titles. Looked at as now existing, these appear 

 artificial : there is suggested the idea that they were at some time or 

 other consciously settled. But this is no more true than it is true that 

 our common words were once consciously settled. Names of objects 

 and qualities, and acts, are at first directly or indirectly descriptive ; 

 and the names we class as titles are in this respect like all others. 

 Just as the deaf-mute who calls to mind a person he means by mimick- 

 ing a peculiarity has no idea of introducing a symbol, so neither has 

 the savage, when he recalls a place as the one where the kangaroo was 

 killed or the one where the cliff fell down ; so neither has he when he 

 suggests an individual by referring to some marked trait in his appear- 

 ance or fact in his life ; and so neither has he when he gives those 

 names, literally descriptive or metaphorically descriptive, which now 

 and again develop into titles. 



The very conception of a proper name grew up unawares. The fact 

 that among the uncivilized a child is for years known as " Thunder- 

 storm," or " New Moon," or " Father-come-home," shows us that there 

 was originally nothing more than a reference to an event which oc- 

 curred on its birthday, as a way of raising the thought the particular 

 child meant. And if afterward it gets such a name as " Squash-head," 

 or "Dirty-saddle" (Dakota names), this results from spontaneously 

 using an alternative, and sometimes better, means of identification. 

 Evidently the like has happened with such less needful names as titles. 

 These must have differentiated from ordinary proper names, simply by' 

 being descriptive of some trait, or some deed, or some function, held in 

 honor. 



Various savage races give a man a name of renown in addition to, 

 or in place of, the name by which he was previously known, on the 

 occasion of a great achievement in battle. The Tupis furnish a good 

 illustration. " The founder of the [cannibal] feast took an additional 

 name as an honorable remembrance of what had been done, and his 

 female relations ran through the house shouting the new title." And 



VOL. XIV. — 2 



