298 PROBLEMS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION 



as strengthening the feeling of social obligation. The man who 

 broke taboo was committing an offence against the community, 

 since he might transfer the taboo to others. Moreover, it was 

 difficult or impossible (it was believed), for the guilty man to 

 escape detection. He would be punished in some signal way. 

 As to what the consequences of the breach of taboo are, savages 

 usually seem to give very vague answers. But the ills of life 

 often loom bigger because they are vague. Some instances, 

 however, of the awful consequences to the taboo breaker are on 

 record. " It happened that a New Zealand chief of high rank 

 and great sanctity had left the remains of his dinner by the way- 

 side. A slave, a stout hungry fellow, coming up after the chief 

 had gone, saw the unfinished dinner and ate it up without asking 

 questions. Hardly had he finished when he was informed by a 

 horror-stricken spectator that the food of which he had eaten, 

 was the chief's. . . . No sooner did he hear the fatal news 

 than he was seized by the most extraordinary convulsions and 

 cramp in the stomach which never ceased till he died about 

 sundown the next day." 1 "Contact with the Mikado's clothes 

 or drinking vessels was avoided, not from fear of contracting 

 any of his qualities, but because the clothes would cause swell- 

 ings and pain all over the body, and the vessels would burn up 

 the throat." 2 Sometimes, however, the breaker of taboo would 

 be put to death or all his property seized by his neighbours. 



Two things are now clear: (l) Taboo helps to lay the 

 foundation of society ; (2) the awe in which it is held is so 

 great that those who violate it are sometimes terribly punished. 



The nature of taboo has been the subject of much discussion. 

 Is it religious? Mr Jevons says definitely Not. He argues 

 that it is very often difficult to trace the connection between 

 a particular taboo and a god. But when the transmissi- 

 bility of taboo is remembered the objection seems untenable. 

 The things which are inherently taboo are blood, babies and 

 corpses (all suggesting, as he says, the mystery of life and 



1 Introduction to the History of Religion, p. 83, quoted from Frazer, Golden Bough, 

 p. 168. 



2 Loc. cit. p. 84. 



