IMAGES AND NAMES. 143 



modem Europe, and better marked than in ancient Rome ; 

 perhaps nowhere more notably than in Shetland^ where it is 

 all but impossible to get a widow, at any distance of time, to 

 mention the name of her dead husband, thoug-h she will talk 

 about him by the hom\ No dead person must be mentioned, 

 for his ghost will come to him who speaks his name.^ 



To conclude the list, the dislike to mentioning the names of 

 spiritual or superhuman beings, and everything to which super- 

 natural powers are ascribed, is, as every one knows, very gene- 

 ral. The Dayak will not speak of the small-pos by name, but 

 will call it "the chief ^^ or ''jungle- leaves," or say "Has he left 

 you ? " ^ The euphemism of calling the Furies the Eumenides, 

 or ' gracious ones,' is the stock illustration of this feeling, and 

 the euphemisms for fairies and for the devil are too familiar 

 to quote. The Yezidis, who worship Satan, have a horror of 

 his name being mentioned. The Laplanders will call the bear 

 " the old man with the fur coat," but they do not like to men- 

 tion his name. In Asia, the same dislike to speak of the 

 tiger is found in Siberia, among the Tunguz ; ^ and in Annam, 

 where he is called "Grandfather" or "Lord,"^ while in Su- 

 matra, they are spoken of as the " wild animals " or " ances- 

 tors."^ The name of Brahma is a sacred thing in India, as 

 that of Jehovah is to the Jews, not to be uttered but on solemn 

 occasions. The Moslem, it is true, has the name of Allah for 

 ever on his lips, but this, as has been mentioned, is only an 

 epithet, not the " great name." 



Among this series of prohibitions, several cases seem, like the 

 burning in effigy among the practices with images, to fall into 

 mere association of ideas, devoid of any superstitious thought. 

 The names of husbands, of chiefs, of supernatural beings, or of 

 the dead, may be avoided from an objection to liberties being 

 taken with the property of a superior, from a dislike to as- 

 sociate names of what is sacred with common life, or to revive 

 hateful thoughts of death and sorrow. But in other instances, 



1 Mrs. Edmondston, ' Shetland Islands ; ' Edin., 1856, p. 20. 



2 St. John, vol. i. p. 62. =* Eavensteiu, p. 382. 



^ Mouhot, ' Travels in Indo-China,' etc. ; London, 1864, vol. i. p. 263. 

 5 Marsden, p. 292. 



