TABOO AND GENETICS 133 



by women for men as due to the superstitious 

 belief that food which has come in contact with 

 or under the influence of the female is capable 

 of transmitting her properties. Some southern 

 Arabs would die rather than accept food from a 

 woman. (12). Among the old Semites it was 

 not the custom for a man to eat with his wife and 

 children. Among the Motu of New Guinea 

 when a man is helega, he may not eat food that 

 his wife has cooked. (46). South Austrahan 

 boys during initiation are forbidden to eat with 

 the women, lest they " grow ugly or become 

 grey." 



It was probably some fear of the charm- 

 weaving power of woman which lay at the root 

 of the rules which forbade her to speak her 

 husband's name, the implication being that she 

 might use it in some incantation against him. 

 For instance, a Zulu woman was forbidden to 

 speak her husband's name ; if she did so, she 

 would be suspected of witchcraft. (47). Herod- 

 otus tells us that no Ionian woman would ever 

 mention the name of her husband, nor may a 

 Hindu woman do so. (48). 



Frazer says that the custom of the Kaffir 

 woman of South Africa not to speak the name 

 of her own or husband's relations has given rise 

 to an almost entirely different language from 

 that of the men through the substitution of 

 new words for the words thus banned. Once 



