his will. The Moslems hold that the "great name" of God (not Allah, which is a mere epithet), is known only to prophets and apostles, who, by pronouncing it, can transport themselves from place to place at will, can kill the living, raise the dead, and do any other miracle.[1]
The concealment of the name of the tutelary deity of Rome, for divulging which Valerius Soranus is said to have paid the penalty of death, is a case in point. As to the reason of its being kept a secret, Pliny says that Verrius Flaccus quotes authors whom he thinks trustworthy, to the effect that when the Romans laid siege to a town, the first step was for the priests to summon the god under whose guardianship the place was, and to offer him the same or a greater place or worship among the Romans. This practice, Pliny adds, still remains in the pontifical discipline, and it is certainly for this reason that it has been kept secret under the protection of what god Rome itself has been, lest its enemies should use a like proceeding.[2]
Moreover, as man puts himself into communication with spirits through their names, so they know him through his name. In Borneo, they will change the name of a sickly child to deceive the evil spirits that have been tormenting it.[3] In South America, among the Abipones and Lenguas, when a man died, his family and neighbours would change their own names[4] to cheat Death when he should come to look for them. As examples of beliefs connected with personal names among more civilized races, may be mentioned the custom in Tonquin of giving young children horrid names to frighten the demons from them,[5] the Jewish superstition that a man's destiny may be changed by changing his name, and the Abyssinian concealment of the child's real name, lest the Budas should bewitch him through it.[6]
It is perhaps a falling off from these extreme instances of the
- ↑ Lane, Mod. Eg., vol. i. p. 361.
- ↑ Plin., xxviii. 4. Plut., Q. R. Macrob., Sat., iii. 9. See Bayle, art. "Soranua."
- ↑ St. John, 'Borneo,' vol. i. p. 197.
- ↑ Dobrizhoffer, 'The Abipones,' E. Tr.; London, 1822, vol. ii. p. 273. Southey, 'History of Brazil;' London, 1819, vol. iii. p. 394.
- ↑ Richard, 'Tonquin,' in Pinkerton, vol. ix. p. 734.
- ↑ Eisenmenger, part i. p. 489. Parkyns, 'Abyssinia,' vol. ii. p. 146.
