EXOGAMY IN CHINA 125 



relatives of the deceased, but their names would be 

 avoided by those more nearly related to them. 



Avoidance of Names of the Living. 



Sir J. G. Frazer in the chapter on tabooed words p? ,f !f n B °322* 



in "Taboo and the Perils of the Soul," gives instances et'seq. " 

 of peoples who keep their names secret; who will not 

 mention them to a stranger, and of some who, while 

 not objecting to their names being known or told, will 

 not themselves pronounce them. 



In the "Summary of the Kules of Propriety" it is U ki, Leue, 

 said: "The ruler of a state should not call by their Pt." Ill, "p. 100." 

 names his highest ministers, nor the two noble ladies 

 of her surname, who accompanied his wife of the 

 harem. A great officer should not call in that way an 

 officer who had been employed by his father, nor the 

 niece and younger sister of his wife (members of his 

 harem). (Another) officer should not call by name the 

 steward of his family, nor his principal concubine." 



The position of the stewards in ancient China bears Gen. 15. v. 2- 

 an analogy to that of Eliezer the steward of Abraham. 

 We find the steward of the house honoured when dead 

 by having the "soothing hand" of his master, a great 

 officer, laid upon his corpse. The same mark of affec- 

 tion and respect was paid by a, great officer to a 

 deceased niece, and to the dead sister of a wife who 

 had accompanied her to the harem. 



It is also said: "The son of Heaven should not be * J'^OTy 

 spoken of as 'going out (of his state).' A feudal prince p.' im. 

 should not be called by his name while alive. (When 

 either of these things is done), it is because the superior 

 man will not show regard for wickedness. A prince 

 who loses his territory is named, and also one who> 

 extinguishes (another state ruled by) lords of the same 

 surname as himself." 



The last of a dynasty having by misdeeds lost the 

 favour of Heaven, and a wicked Euler, are, by those 

 deposing or removing them, stripped of their rank and 

 territorial designations and then, and thereafter in 

 history, "named" — as are recalcitrant members of our 

 House of Commons. 



The idea underlying the refusal or reluctance of Op. eit. pi. III. 

 many peoples to pronounce their own names is thought p * 

 by Frazer to be that the name as a part of the person 

 is the more so when spoken with his own breath; and 



