Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/181

NAMES 169 (Celtic, Roman, and English in Great Britain) who have set in the form of names the seal of their possession on the soil. Again, the meanings of the names illustrate the characters of the various races. The Romans have left us names connected with camps (castra, chesters) and military roads ; the English have used simple descriptions of the baldest kind, or have exhibited their attachment to the idea of property ; the Celtic names (like those which the red men have left in America, or the blacks in Australia) are musical with poetic fancy, and filled with interest in the aspects and the sentiment of nature. Our race carries with it the ancient names of an older people into every continent, and titles perhaps originally given to places in the British Isles by men who had not yet learned to polish their weapons of flint may now be found in Australia, America, Africa, and the islands of the furthest seas. Local names were originally imposed in a handy local manner. The settler or the group of cave-men styled the neighbouring river " the water," the neighbouring hill " the peak," and these terms often still survive in relics of tongues which can only be construed by the learned. The history of personal names is longer and more complex, but proceeds from beginnings almost as simple. But in personal names the complexity of human character, and the gradual processes of tangling and disentangling the threads of varied human interest, soon come in, and personal names are not imposed once and for all. Each man in very early societies may have many names, in different characters and at different periods of his life. The oldest personal names which we need examine here are the names which indicate, not an individual, but a group, held together by the conscious sense or less conscious sentiment of kindred, or banded together for reasons of convenience. An examination of customs prevalent among the most widely separated races of Asia, Africa, Australia, and America proves that groups conceiving themselves to be originally of the same kin are generally styled by the name of some animal or other object (animate or inanimate) from which they claim descent. This object is known as the "totem," from the Red-Indian word dodhaim. Of this topic it must here suffice to say that the earliest and most widely spread class and family names among uncivilized people are totemistic. The groups of supposed kin, however widely scattered in local distribution, are known as wolves, bears, turtles, suns, moons, cockatoos, reeds, and what not, according as each group claims descent from this or that stock, and wears a badge representing this or that animal, plant, or natural object. Unmistak able traces of the same habit of naming exist among Semitic and Teutonic races, and even among Greeks and Romans. The origin of this class of names cannot well be investigated in this place, but it may be observed that the names chosen are commonly those of objects which can be easily drawn in a rude yet recognizable way, and easily expressed in the language of gesture. In addition to the totem names (which indicate, in each example, supposed blood -kindred), local aggregates of men received local names. We hear of the " hill-men," " the cave-men," "the bush-men," "the coast-men," the "men of the plain," precisely as in the old Attic divisions of Aktaioi, Pediaioi, and so forth. When a tribe comes to recognize its own unity, as a rule it calls itself by some term meaning simply "the men," all other tribes being regarded as barbarous or inferior. Probably other neighbouring tribes also call themselves "the men" in another dialect or language, while the people in the neighbourhood are known by an opprobrious epithet, as RaJcshasas among the early Aryan dwellers in India, or Eskimo (raw-eaters) in the. far north of the American continent. Leaving tribal for personal names, we find that, among most uncivilized races, a name (derived from some incident or natural object) is given at the time of birth by the parents of each new-born infant. Occasionally the name is imposed before the child is born, and the proud parents call themselves father and mother of such an one before the expected infant sees the light. In most cases the name (the earliest name) denotes some phenomenon of nature ; thus Dobrizhofer met in the forests a young man styled " Gold flower of day," that is, " Dawn," his father having been named " Sun." Similar names are commonly given by the natives of Australia, while no names are more common among North-American Indians than those derived from sun, moon, cloud, and wind. This simple historical fact is very damaging to the mythological theories which resolve into solar or elemental myths all legends where the names of the characters can be philologically twisted into descriptions of natural phenomena. It is concluded that these myths originally described incidents in the life of clouds, winds, and tides, whereas names like those on which the theory depends are commonly applied by savage peoples to ordinary human beings. Marshal Saxe was not the sun because his mistress was named "Aurore," and Cephalus and Procris were real persons to those who heard their story, although by a series of logical jumps their names may be interpreted as synonyms of the sun and the dew. The names of savage persons are not permanent. The name first given is ordinarily changed (at the ceremony answering to confirmation in church) for some more appropriate and descriptive nickname, and that, again, is apt to be superseded by various " honour-giving names " derived from various exploits. The common superstition against being "named" has probably produced the custom by which each individual is addressed, when possible, by some wide term of kinship "brother," "father," and the like. The bad luck which in Zulu customs as in Vedic myths attends the utterance of the real name is evaded by this system of addresses. Could we get a savage an Iroquois, for example to explain his titles, we would find that he is, say, " Morning Cloud " (by birth-name), " Hungry Wolf " (by confirmation name), " He that raises the white fellow s scalp " (by honour-giving name), of the Crane totem (by family and hereditary name, as under stood by ourselves). When society grows so permanent that male kinship and paternity are recognized, the custom of patronymics is introduced. The totem name gives place to a gentile name, itself probably a patronymic in form ; or, as in Greece, the gentile name gives place to a local name, derived from the deme. Thus a Roman is called Caius ; Julius is his gentile name (of the Julian clan) ; Caesar is a kind of hereditary nickname. A Greek is Thucydides (the name usually derived from the grand father), the son of Olorus, of the deme of Halimusia. This system of names answered the purposes of Greek and Roman civilization. In Europe, among the Teutonic races, the stock-names (probably totemistic in origin) sur vive in English local names, which speak of the " ton " or "ham" of "the Billings or Tootings. An examination of these names, as collected in Kemble s Anglo-Saxons, proves that they were originally derived, as a rule, from animals and plants. Our English ancestors had for personal names compound words, as "Xoble Wolf " (Ethelwulf), "Wolf of War," and so forth, and these names certainly testify to a somewhat primitive and fierce stage of society. Then came more vulgar nicknames and personal descriptions, as "Long," "Brown," "White," and so forth. Other names are directly derived from the occupation or craft (Smith, Fowler, Sadler) of the man to whom they were given, and yet other names were derived from places. The noble and XVII. 22