ince I last saw him and now
bore a new name; only the assurance that the spirits could not harm him
through a white man induced him at last to whisper to me his former
name. This change of name to deceive the fates extends even to inanimate
objects, and to animals which are to be caught or trapped. When hunting
for camphor, the name of the object of their search must be never
mentioned; it is always spoken of as "the thing that smells." Even all
the instruments, which they use in collecting the valuable drug, have
fanciful names, while the searchers talk in a language invented solely
for those who collect camphor. Unless they conform to all these
requirements, the camphor crystals, which in this particular variety are
found only in the crevices of the wood, will elude them and their search
be fruitless. When the people go _Tuba fishing_, which consists of
poisoning the stream with the juice of the Tuba root, and thus
stupefying the fish and making them rise to the surface, where they can
be easily caught in nets or speared, they never say that they are going
after fish, but after the leaves which float down stream.

These and many other customs relative to the naming of things are all
founded on the same idea of the potency and mysticism inherent in a
name, which may be found in the legends of the old Egyptians, wherein
the power of the great king and god _Ra_ depended on the fact that no
one knew his real name, until Isis by stratagem got it from him; and
forthwith his power left him. It was this same idea that prevented the
Hebrew from ever speaking the name of the Most High; it is probably the
same thought which prompts the Japanese to change a person's name after
death lest by mentioning the one known during life the spirit of the
dead should be recalled from the other world.

The downfall of the god _Ra_ brings to mind another superstition of
which I have noticed a remnant among the Borneans also, the power of
working charms with the saliva. When the great god Ra became so old that
he no longer had control of his lower jaw, Isis collected some of his
saliva which dropped upon the ground below his throne, and mixing it
with clay, made a snake of it. (I quote from the "Turin Papyrus," of
which Mr. EDWARD CLODD gives a translation in his recent and valuable
little book called "Tom Tit Tot.") This snake Isis left in Ra's path; as
he passed by, it bit him, and to relieve him of his agony Isis persuaded
him that the onl