EXOGAMY IN CHINA 



121 



seq. 



In China, the name to be avoided was disused and 

 periphrasis took its place. 



In China not only was the name part of the thing 

 named, but it was inseparable, and as the written 

 language is founded on ideographs, and their combina- 

 tions, the written name, like the spoken name, was 

 part of the thing named. 



The primitive Chinese may, like the Cro-Magnon 

 race, have been not only observant but artistic. If so, 

 one cannot say how far back in time they made draw- 

 ings. A few bo<ld strokes depicting an object of the 

 chase if repeated until recognized for what it repre- 

 sented would be to them a carved, or painted, name, 

 and the foundation of a written language laid. 



The reason for the avoidance by the primitive Golden Bough, 



Vol I n *3AQ 



Chinese of the name of the dead would appear to be e t " 

 the same as that which Frazer finds to have been the 

 motive for the same taboo' amongst other primitive 

 peoples, namely, "fear of evoking the ghost, although 

 the natural unwillingness to revive past sorrows un- 

 doubtedly operates also to draw the veil of oblivion 

 over the names of the dead." 



We have seen that in the ancestral temple the 

 •dead were invoked by name; called in order that they 

 might attend, and, by their living representatives the 

 "P'ersonators" partake of the sacrifices, join in the 

 worship offered to the higher powers, and bless their 

 descendants. 



In an Ode describing the sacrifices in the ancestral 

 temple of the King, or the Chief of a Clan, and assigned 

 to the 9th Century B.C. it is said: — 



"The dead cannot in form be there, 

 But there are those their part who bear, 

 We lead them to the highest seat, 

 And beg that they will drink and eat ? 

 So shall our sires our service own, 

 And deign our happiness to crown, 

 With blessings still more bright." 



She King, Legge, 

 Op. eit., Pt. II. 

 Bk. VI, Ode V. 



"Then comes the wise priest's voice : — 



The Spirits all are satisfied. 



No longer in their seats abide 



Their representatives, but slow, 



'Mid warning bells and drums withdraw ; 



So end the sacrifices." 



In commenting on the careful concealment of Golden Bough, 

 ;a man's "true name" by the ancient Egyptians, Pt " "* p " 322 " 

 Frazer says, their "comparatively high civilization was 



