IMAGES AND NAMES. 141 



In various parts of the world, a variety of remarkable customs 

 are observed between men and women, and their fathers- and 

 mothers-in-law. These will be noticed elsewhere, but it is 

 necessary to mention here, that among the Dayaks of Borneo, 

 a man must not pronounce the name of his father-in-law ; ^ 

 among the Omahas of North America, the father- and mother- 

 in-law do not speak to their son-in-law, or mention his name,^ 

 nor do they call him or he them by name among the Dacotahs.^ 

 Again, the wife is in some places prohibited from mentioning 

 her husband's name. "A Hindoo wife is never, under any 

 circumstances, to mention the name of her husband. ' He,' 

 ' The Master,' ' Swamy,' etc., are titles she uses when speaking 

 of, or to her lord. In no way can one of the sex annoy another 

 more intensely and bitterly, than by charging her with having 

 mentioned her husband's name. It is a crime not easily for- 

 given." ^ In East Africa, among the Barea, the wife never 

 utters the name of her husband, or eats in his presence, and 

 even among the Beni Amer, where the women have extensive 

 privileges and great social power, the wife is still not allowed 

 to eat in the husband's presence, and only mentions his name 

 before strangers.^ The Kafir custom prohibits wives from 

 speaking the names of relatives of their husbands and fathers- 

 in-law. In Australia, among the names which in some tribes 

 must not be spoken, are those of a father- or mother-in-law, of 

 a son-in-law, and of persons in some kind of connexion by 

 marriage. Another of the Australian prohibitions is not only 

 very curious, but is curious as having apparently no analt)gue 

 elsewhere. Among certain tribes in the Murray River district, 

 the youths undergo, instead of circumcision, an operation called 

 wliarepin, and afterwards, the natives who have officiated, and 

 those who have been operated upon, though they may meet 

 and talk, must never mention one another's names, nor must 

 the name of one even be spoken by a third person in the pre- 

 sence of the other.^ 



' St. John, vol. i. -p. 51. " Long's Exp., vol. i. p. 253. 



^ Schoolcraft, part ii. p. 196. 



* F. de W. Ward, ' India and the Hindoos ; ' London, 1853, p. 189. 



' Munzinger, ' Ostafrikanische Studien ; ' Schaffhausen, 1864, pp. 325, 526. 



* Eyre, vol. ii. pp. 336-9. The wharepin is a ceremonial depUation, 



