Chapter 15 Taboo Behavior: Taboo with strangers

What has been said before is the original idea of ​​the soul and its vulnerability.This idea is not limited to a single nation or country, it is scattered all over the world with various specific episodes, and, as we have seen, survives to this day in modern Europe.Such deep-rooted and widely spread beliefs will inevitably have an impact on the formation of the ancient imperial system.For, if every man takes great pains to save his soul from the multifaceted threat of destruction, how careful should every man be in defense of a king?This is because the life of the king is related to the happiness and survival of all the people, and protecting the life of the king is the common interest of the whole people.We may therefore expect to find that the system of defense for the life of a king is more complex and elaborate than that which is generally employed in primitive societies for the safety of their own souls.In fact, the lives of early ancient kings were governed by strict and detailed regulations.Can we conclude that those regulations were in fact the measures we supposed to be taken to protect the king's life?This inference can be confirmed by examining the regulations.From these regulations it can be seen that what the king obeys is the same as what other people obey for the safety of their souls, and that even those regulations that seem rather strange and inappropriate to the king are mostly, if not all. King's safety or life's.The purpose of imposing taboos on kings is to keep them safe from all sources of danger.The general practice is to force him to live more or less or completely in isolation.But it depends on how many and strict rules he follows.The most terrible source of danger is witchcraft, which is more terrible than savagery.The king is suspicious of all strangers who practice this sorcery.Therefore, preventing fatal hazards caused intentionally or unintentionally by strangers has become the basic principle of vigilance for primitive people.So before strangers are allowed to enter the area, or at least before they are allowed to interact freely with the local residents, the locals must first perform certain rituals to dispel their magical powers, resist the deadly hazards they spread, or purify ( Let’s say for example) the air polluted by them.Therefore, when the envoys sent by Emperor Justin II of the Eastern Roman Empire to Turkey to conclude the peace treaty arrived, they were first received by their wizards and performed purification rituals, with the intention of expelling all harmful influences.To make all the items they brought piled up in the open space outside the house, the wizards rang the bells and drums, walked around the items with burning incense candles in their hands, puffed and murmured, and worked hard Drive out the evil, and then lead the messengers to pass through the burning incense and fireworks to cleanse the messenger's body.

When Cleves was traveling in South America, he visited an Apalai Indian village.Not long after he arrived in the village, some people from the village caught many large black ants and put them on palm leaves and brought them to him.The bite of this large black ant is very painful.The whole village, men, women and children gathered around him, asking him to sting their faces, legs and all over their bodies with these big black ants.Sometimes his hand was a little softer, and the people shouted, "Sting again, sting again!" They didn't express their satisfaction until the skin on his body was swollen in small patches, as if they had been whipped with nettles.The purpose of this can be seen from the customs handed down from places such as Amboina and Urias.The custom is to use irritating seasonings such as ginger and cloves, finely mash them, and sprinkle them on the patient, and use the irritating feeling to drive away the disease that is entangled in the person.In Java, a popular cure for gout or rheumatism is to rub the fingernails and toenails of the patient with pepper. It is believed that gout or rheumatism are afraid of the spicy taste of pepper, and they will run away in a hurry when they encounter pepper.Thus, on the Slave Coast, mothers of young children often believe that an evil disease is invading their children, so they cut a gash in the body of a sick child, and rub green chili or other condiments on the wound, thinking that this spicy taste can cure the disease. Drive that sick ghost away.The poor child naturally cried out in pain, but the mother let the child cry, because she believed that the sick person was also suffering from the same pain, so she left the patient and the child recovered from the disease.

It is therefore probable that the etiquette of receiving strangers from outside was motivated, though not directly stated, not by respect for the visitors but by fear of them. In addition, people also believe that when a person returns from a trip in a foreign country, he may be infected with some evil spirits from a stranger.Therefore, before returning to the hometown and reuniting with relatives and friends, it is necessary to perform certain rituals.Bechuana natives "always have their hair cut and bathed when they come back from a trip in a foreign land, lest they may be infected with witchcraft and evil from foreigners."In some areas of West Africa, a man leaves his home for a long time. Before meeting his wife after returning home, he must bathe in specific water and make a mark on his forehead by a wizard, so as to eliminate the spell cast on him by a foreign woman. Magic may also be transmitted to other women in the village through him.The two Indian ambassadors were sent by the local prince to England. After returning, they were considered to be too polluted by foreigners. Only by rebirth can they restore their innocence. "For the purpose of regeneration, it is commanded to cast in pure gold the image of a natural female—or a woman or a cow—in which, in turn, the person to be regenerated is placed, and he is brought forth through a normal channel which symbolizes the birth of a fetus. Since life-size casts of pure gold were too expensive, a sacred yoni [the sacred symbol of the female genitals in Hinduism] was cast instead, and the man to be regenerated emerged from it." The golden statue was cast at the order of the prince, and thus emerged from it two of his emissaries, reborn.

Now that such precautions as those above are taken for the people against the perils of foreigners in foreign lands, it is not surprising that some special measures were taken for the protection of the king from similar perils.In the Middle Ages, all foreign envoys who met with the Tatar Khan had to walk between two piles of fire first, and so did the gifts they brought.The reason for this ritual was that the fire would dispel any magic that an outsider might have murdered the Khan.When Kalamba, the most powerful chief of Bashlange in the Congo River Basin, met his chiefs and their entourage for the first time, or those who came to surrender after rebellion, he stipulated that these people, both men and women, should have two consecutive visits. He bathed in two streams every day and spent two nights in the market place.After the second bath, they all entered Calamba's palace naked, and he made a long white mark on each of their chests and foreheads.Then go back to the market, put on your costume, and take the next ordeal.The method is to sprinkle pepper in each eye, and the person will suffer so much pain that he will have to confess all his sins, answer all questions asked, and swear an oath of loyalty.After all this is done, these people have to live in the city.