Thus among the Kayans or Bahaus of
Central Borneo, while the priestesses are engaged in the performance
of certain rites they may not step on the ground, and boards are
laid for them to tread on. Warriors, again, on the war-path are
surrounded, so to say, by an atmosphere of taboo; hence some Indians
of North America might not sit on the bare ground the whole time
they were out on a warlike expedition. In Laos the hunting of
elephants gives rise to many taboos; one of them is that the chief
hunter may not touch the earth with his foot. Accordingly, when he
alights from his elephant, the others spread a carpet of leaves for
him to step upon.
Apparently holiness, magical virtue, taboo, or whatever we may call
that mysterious quality which is supposed to pervade sacred or
tabooed persons, is conceived by the primitive philosopher as a
physical substance or fluid, with which the sacred man is charged
just as a Leyden jar is charged with electricity; and exactly as the
electricity in the jar can be discharged by contact with a good
conductor, so the holiness or magical virtue in the man can be
discharged and drained away by contact with the earth, which on this
theory serves as an excellent conductor for the magical fluid.
Pages:
1637
1638
1639
1640
1641
1642
1643
1644
1645
1646
1647
1648
1649
1650
1651
1652
1653
1654
1655
1656
1657
1658
1659
1660
1661