oes the native stand on
one side allowing the white man to pass. One accepts it without thought;
it is the expected, but if pondered upon it is suggestive of much.

5. Taboo[265]

Rules of holiness in the sense just explained, i.e., a system of
restrictions on man's arbitrary use of natural things, enforced by the
dread of supernatural penalties, are found among all primitive peoples.
It is convenient to have a distinct name for this primitive institution,
to mark it off from the later developments of the idea of holiness in
advanced religions, and for this purpose the Polynesian term "taboo"
has been selected. The field covered by taboos among savage and
half-savage races is very wide, for there is no part of life in which
the savage does not feel himself to be surrounded by mysterious agencies
and recognise the need of walking warily. Moreover all taboos do not
belong to religion proper, that is, they are not always rules of conduct
for the regulation of man's contact with deities that, when taken in the
right way, may be counted on as friendly, but rather appear in many
cases to be precautions against the approach of malignant
enemies--against contact with evil spirits and the like. Thus alongside
of taboos that exactly correspond to rules of holiness, protecting the
inviolability of idols and sanctuaries, priest and chiefs, and generally
of all persons and things pertaining to the gods and their worship, we
find another kind of taboo which in the Semitic field has its parallel
in rules of uncleanness. Women after childbirth, men who have touched a
dead body, and so forth, are temporarily taboo and separated from human
society, just as the same persons are unclean in Semitic religion. In
these cases the person under taboo is not regarded as holy, for he is
separated from approach to the sanctuary as well as from contact with
men; but his act or condition is somehow associated with supernatural
dangers, arising, according to the common savage explanation, from the
presence of formidable spirits which are shunned like an infectious
disease. In most savage societies no sharp line seems to be drawn
between the two kinds of taboo just indicated, and even in more advanced
nations the notions of holiness and uncleanness often touch. Among the
Syrians, for example, swine's flesh was taboo, but it was an open
question whether this was because the animal was holy or because it was
unclean. But though not precise, the distin