"Modest
women," as Kleinpaul truly remarks, "have a much greater horror
of saying immodest things than of doing them; they believe that
fig-leaves were especially made for the mouth." (Kleinpaul,
_Sprache ohne Worte_, p. 309.) It is a tendency which is linked
on to the religious and ritual feeling which we have already
found to be a factor of modesty, and which, even when applied to
language, appears to have an almost or quite instinctive basis,
for it is found among the most primitive savages, who very
frequently regard a name as too sacred or dangerous to utter.
Among the tribes of Central Australia, in addition to his
ordinary name, each individual has his sacred or secret name,
only known to the older and fully initiated members of his own
totemic group; among the Warramunga, it is not permitted to women
to utter even a man's ordinary name, though she knows it.
(Spencer and Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_, p.
581.) In the mysterious region of sex, this feeling easily takes
root. In many parts of the world, men use among themselves, and
women use among themselves, words and even languages which they
may not use without impropriety in speaking to persons of the
opposite sex, and it has been shown that exogamy, or the fact
that the wife belongs to a different tribe, will not always
account for this phenomenon.
Pages:
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141