iods among various peoples in
various ages has varied greatly. Taboos relating to foods, chiefs, and
the intercourse of the sexes are usually permanent everyday customs;
those that relate to economic procedures are in force for the time
demanded by each industry. In Hawaii the catching of certain species of
fish was forbidden for half the year, and the Borneo harvest taboo
(carrying prohibition of other work) lasts sometimes for weeks. There is
mention in a Maori legend of a taboo of three years.[1023] According to
the later Hebrew law, in every seventh year all agricultural operations
ceased.[1024] A portent may demand a long period of restriction, as in
the case of the Roman nine-day ceremony (_novendiales feriae_).[1025] As
has been remarked above, economic taboos are often dictated by
convenience--they are prudential rules to which a supernatural sanction
has been attached.

+623+. _Diffusion of taboo._ Polynesia, particularly New Zealand and
Hawaii, is the special home of taboo--the only region in which it is
known to have taken the form of a well-compacted, all-embracing system.
It exists in Melanesia, but it is there less complicated and
general,[1026] and the same thing is true of British New Guinea.[1027]
In parts of Borneo it is found in modified form: there are two sorts of
taboo, one, called _mali_, absolutely forbidding work on certain
occasions, the other, called _penti_, allowing work if it is begun by a
person not _penti_; before the birth of a child the latter form of taboo
rests on both parents.[1028] The Land Dyaks have their _lali_ days and
the Sea Dyaks their _pemate_,[1029] these terms being the equivalents of
_taboo_.

+624+. Though there is no proof of the existence of all-pervading taboo
systems among the peoples of Asia and America, there are notices of
taboo regulations in particular cases in these regions. At the birth of
a child the Hindu father was subject to certain restrictions along with
the mother, and his taboo was removed by bathing.[1030] Among the Sioux
Indians on the death of a child the father is taboo for a period of six
months or a year.[1031] In West African Calabar there are taboos (called
_ibet_) on individuals, connected with spirits, the guardians of
children.[1032] In Assam economic and other taboos are elaborate and
well organized.[1033] Such observances, in connection with death, are
found among the Kafirs[1034] and the Eskimo.[1035]

+625+. For the ancient civilized