594 CHINESE FOLKLORE AND SOME WESTERN ANALOGIES. 



palaco liad to bo Imilt for oacli new oniporor, soino distaiK-c from the 

 estal)lishinent of his deceased predecessor. Nor is it iiidikely that 

 the harharic Asiatic and Afi'icaji custoin of killiiio- and hurvino" all a 

 dead kint»-',s wives, servants, and horses was simply an enforcement of 

 the tabu that involved them all in the category of his personal ett'ectH. 

 In China, as in ancient western Asia, the institution applies chiefly to 

 expressions rather than to acts. Thus the Emperor's prop<M- name is 

 not permitted to l)e written or pronounced by any of his subjects, the 

 characters being amended and their sounds changed when his reign 

 begins. Confucius's personal name, K'iu, must never be used. When 

 it occurs in the writings of his conunentators it is pronounced mau, 

 and this has always been so. In time even the conventional mau 

 has acquired a sort of veneration that unfits it for vulgar use. so that 

 an acre of land — which happens to l)e the meaning of mau — is called 

 "yau" in South China. Now, by a whimsical coincidence, yau is the 

 Canton prommciation for the unpronounceal)le name (KMu) itself. Thus 

 it ha})peiis that the original tabued word lias rej)lace(l the one which 

 was first adopted to replace the original. 



All this will suggi'st to the Bible student t\\o sanctity that made the 

 name Yahweh utuitteral)le among the ,l«>ws, whose Talniudic legt'nds 

 also declare tiiat Solomon made heaven and eai'th to (|iiake when he 

 uttered the unconunuiiicable name. It must have been some naive 

 dread of otlending theii- deities that led other ancient peoples, includ- 

 ing the (xreeks, to coin att rilxitive titles instead of calling them by 

 name. It is the same kind of i(^spect that a Kirghiz woman to-day 

 shows her husband, whose real name she never i)erniits herself to utter 

 in the presence of others. A Chinaman for the same reason will not 

 say his father's or grandt'athei"'s names wh(»ther they be alive or dead. 

 In this manner, and through extension of the notion of tabu, has arisen 

 the practice of euphemism, which is so conunon as to l)e a heritag'e of 

 all mankind. If the word or id(Mi is offensive another must fulxc its 

 place, as among the Jews, being forbidden swine's flesh, they c.illed 

 the pig " the other thing." Death and diseases naturally come in for the 

 larger share of these, some of the Chinese expressions IxMng ((uaintly 

 suggestive, as when a funeral is referred to as "'that white affair," or 

 the chills as " l)uying firewood illness." The source of this euphemistic 

 habit — fear of irritating the lurking demon — must account for th(> ])ecu- 

 liar Chinese usage of either giving their sons girls' names, or dubbing 

 them "little pig" or ''black cur," and similar ungentle appellations, 

 that the divinities may be deceived into thinking their possessors 

 unimportant. We maj* forgive them the implied reflection upon the 

 sex, for the hateful deity in question is supposed to have no appetite 

 for little girls, therefore the exchange of names does no harm. The 

 pathetic eflorts of Asiatic parents to outwit the dread monster who 

 would rob them of their ofi'spring are grotesque enough, but they 

 reflect a feeling that stirs the heart of all mankind. A grandmother 



