down to the river, and
jumped in to escape death at his hands, though it should be by drowning.
But as she fell into the water she became a sheldrake duck." The
Passamaquoddies, who relate this story, have hardly yet passed out of
the stage of thought in which no steadfast boundary is set between men
and the lower animals. The amphibious maiden, who dwelt in the bottom of
the river, could not be drowned by jumping into the stream; and it is
evident that she only resumes her true aquatic form in escaping from her
husband, who, it should be added, is himself called Partridge and seems
to be regarded as, in fact, a fowl of that species. A still more
remarkable instance is to be found among the Welsh of Carnarvonshire,
who, it need hardly be said, are now on a very different level of
civilization from that of the Passamaquoddies. They tell us that when
the fairy bride of Corwrion quitted her unlucky husband, she at once
flew through the air and plunged into the lake; and one account
significantly describes her as flying away _like a wood-hen_. Can it
have been many generations since she was spoken of as actually changing
into a bird?[194]

We may now pass to wholly different types of the tradition. In all the
stories where the magical dress appears, whether as a feather-skin, the
hide of a quadruped, or in the modified form of wings, a robe, an apron,
a veil or other symbol, the catastrophe is brought about by the wife's
recovery, usually more or less accidental, of the article in question.
But it is obvious that where the incident of the dress is wanting, the
loss of the supernatural bride must be brought about by other means. In
some traditions, the woman's caprice, or the fulfilment of her fate, is
deemed enough for this purpose; but in the most developed stories it is
caused by the breach of a _taboo_. _Taboo_ is a word adopted from the
Polynesian languages, signifying, first, something set apart, thence
holy and inviolable, and lastly something simply forbidden. It is
generally used in English as a verb of which the nearest equivalent is
another curious verb--to boycott. A person or thing _tabooed_ is one
avoided by express or tacit agreement on the part of any class or number
of persons; and _to taboo_ is to avoid in pursuance of such an
agreement. In Folklore, however, the word is used in a different and
wider sense. It includes every sort of prohibition, from the social or
religious boycott (if I may use the word),