INFLUENCE OF NICKNAMES. 37 



animals, plants, and inanimate objects? Very simply. 

 Savages habitually distinguish individuals by names that 

 are either directly suggestive of some personal trait or fact 

 of personal history, or else express an observed community 

 of character with some well-known object. Such a gene 

 sis of individual names, before surnames have arisen, is 

 inevitable ; and how easily it arises we shall see on re 

 membering that it still goes on in its original form, even 

 when no longer needful. I do not refer only to the sig 

 nificant fact that in some parts of England, as in the nail- 

 making districts, nicknames are universal, and surnames 

 scarcely recognized; but I refer to the general usage 

 among both children and adults. The rude man is apt to 

 be known as &quot; a bear j &quot; a sly fellow, as an &quot; old fox ; &quot; a 

 hypocrite, as &quot; the crocodile.&quot; Names of plants, too, are 

 used ; as when the red-haired boy is called &quot; carrots &quot; by 

 his school-fellows. ISTor do we lack nicknames derived 

 from inorganic objects and agents : instance that given by 

 Mr. Carlyle to the elder Sterling &quot; Captain Whirlwind.&quot; 

 Now, in the earliest savage state, this metaphorical nam- 



is the following : An arrow is fixed upright in the ground, and the Veddah 

 dances slowly round it, chanting this invocation, which is almost musical in 

 its rhythm : 



&quot; Ma miya, ma miy, ma deya, 

 Topang Koyichetti mittigan yandah ? &quot; 



&quot; My departed one, my departed one, my God ! 

 Where art thou wandering ? &quot; 



&quot; This invocation appears to be used on all occasions when the intervention 

 of the guardian spirits is required in sickness, preparatory to hunting, etc. 

 Sometimes in the latter case, a portion of the flesh of the game is promised as 

 a votive offering, in the event of the chase being successful ; and they believe 

 that the spirits will appear to them in dreams and tell them where to hunt. 

 Sometimes they cook food and place it in the dry bed of a river, or some other 

 secluded spot, and then call on their deceased ancestors by name, Come and 

 partake of this 1 Give us maintenance as you did when living ! Come, where 

 soever you may be, on a tree, on a rock, in the forest, come ! And dance 

 round the food, half chanting half shouting the invocation.&quot; Bailey, Trans. 

 Eth. Soc., London, N. S., ii., p. 301. 



