Evening Post. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1932.

Evening Post, Issue 2, 2 July 1932, Page 10

Evening Post. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1932.

THE SACRED NAME OF KING « A hundred years ago the Government of Siam was described as despotic, not even limited by ancient customs, by the established tenets of religion, or by the authority of here-' ditary chiefs. The divine right of the King was carried so far that even his name was sacred, and that even to inquire after his' health might be a case for boiling oil, which in that country was no mere figure of speech as a derogation from his immortality. Apparently paraphrasing John Crawfurd, whose "Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China," published in 1828, is still a work of authority, the "Penny Cyclopaedia" (1841) described the divinity attributed to the Kings of Siam as follows:— To conceive an idea of the awe in which the King is held by the people, it need only, be mentioned that his subjects cannot even venture to utter his name. It is certainly never mentioned in 1 writing, and is said to- be known only by a very few among his principal courtiers. Crawfurd thinks it doubtful whether tho King of Siam. has; in. reality any other namo than the formidable epithets under which he is usually mentioned, as "the Sacred Head of Heads,V "the Sacred 'Head of Lives," "tho Owner of All," etc. His health must not bo inquired after, because, however ill he may be, it must bo taken for granted that ho is free from bodily infirmities. No. heir to tho,Throne is appointed during the lifetime of the King; for to imagine his death is considered high treason. It seems doubtful whether at that highly favoured Court the time-hon-oured Oriental formula, "O King, live for ever," might not have got' a flatterer into trouble. Would not' such a wish have implied a doubt I of the determination and the destiny I of the King to live for ever in any I event? • Certainly his scientific advisers should have escaped the dil-. Emma presented to their brethren in \ Persia, of whom'we are told that when a Persian King dies, both his astrologers and physicians arc driven from Court—the former for not having predicted, and the later for not having prevented, his death. At a Court where it was forbidden to cast any doubt on the King's immortality or ,even to mention his name, the man of science must have been as free as the courtier from either temptation or obligation to cast any^ doubts upon the exemption of the King from the "stern law of every mortal lot." The extension of "the divinity that doth hedge a King" to thj hedging of his name and the making of the use of it a capital offence may seem to be carrying a principle which had its advantages in primitive • times a little bit too far. Yet it has had its parallels in all parts oP the world, and at the Chinese Court it survived the Siamese example above quoted by more than half a century, and probably till the extension of the monarchy. In China, says Edward Clodd, in "Tom Tit Tot" (1898), the ming or proper name of the reigning Emperor (sight of whom is tabooed when he appears in public, «yen his guards having to turn their back to tho lino when' the Son of Heaven, approaches) is saercu, and must be spelt differently during his lifetime. Although, given in tho prayer offered at tho Imperial worship of ancestors, it is not permitted to bo written or pronounced by any subject. " J •This extraordinary phenomena, with all its many .ramifications and its almost incredible inconveniences, is illustrated^ and discussed hy . Sir James Frazer in "The Golden Bough" with his usual encyclopaedic profusion. A few examples follow:— In Siam it used to be difficult to ascertain the King's real name, since it was carefully kept sacred from fear of sorcery; anyone who mentioned it was clapped in gaol. The King, might only be referred to under certain highsounding titles, such as "tho august," "tho perfect," "tho supreme," "the great emperor," "descendant of the angels," and so on. In Burma it was accounted an'impiety of tho deepest dye to mention the name of tho reigning Sovereign; Burmeso subjects, even when they wero far from their country, could not bo prevailed upon to do so. . Coreans ara forbidden to Utter the King's name, which, indeed, is seldom known. When a prince ascends the throne of Cambodia he ceases, to be designated by his. real name, and if that name happens to be a common word- in the language, the .word is often, changed. Thus, for example, since the reign of King Ang Duong the- word "duong," which meant a.small coin, has been replaced by; "dom." In the

island of Sunda it is taboo to utter any word which coincides with the name of a prince- or chief.

And so on almost "ad infinitum."

But there is no need to go outside of the Pacific or outside of New Zealand in order to illustrate the prevalence of this belief. Tylor and Clodd quote Polack's "Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders" for the statement

that from a New Zealand chief's being called "Wai, J> which means "water," a new name had to bo given to water. A chief was callod "Maripi," or "knife," and knives word therefore called by another name, "nekra."

Sir James Frazer adds Tregear to his list, but the highest New Zealand authority of all came too late for inclusion. In his great book, "The Maori," Elsdon Best tells us how the naming even of the first-born child of a high-class family.might require a permanent change in the language.;

A tapu name, he writes, was often somewhat of a nuisance, and also a danger,'to the people of a community. In this wise: Should any vcord of vernacular speech enter into the name, then such word would become tapu, and so could not bo employed in its proper sense, but only as the name of the child. Should any person use it in its ordinary sense then that person would .bo severely dealt with for insulting tho child. We are tola that persons , have been killed for this offence. This embargo meant that another word must be sought to take the place of the banned word. If no synonym were available, then a new word would be •coined... Names of important chiefs were- sometimes honoured in a similar manner.

But we cannot say whether the ingenious perversity of the Maoris ever got so far as that of the Kaffirs, who, as quoted by Clodd, would not allow a woman to pronounce

the names of. any of her' husband's male relatives in the ascending line; or she may not even' pronounce any word in which tho principal syllable of his name occurs.

That much of the divinity which attached to the Kings of Siam a hundred years ago still remained at the beginning of the present century is proved by the remarkable testimony of Mr.' E. Young in "The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe."

The Siamese speak a language of their own. It possesses its own nouns, verbs, and other parts of speech, a sprinkling of slang, and practically no "swear" words. These are only used by those whose knowledge of English is colloquial.- There is a special language devoted to the sacred person and attributes of tho King, which must be used by all who speak to or of him: The special vocabulary required is a difficult one to learn even to the natives themselves... The hairs of the monarch's head, the soles of his feet, the breath of his body—in fact every single detail of his person, both internal and external, has a particular name. When he eats or drinks, sleeps or walks, a special word indicates that these acts are being performed by the Sovereign himself, and such words cannot possibly bo applied to any other person whatever. Thero is no-word in the language by which any creature of higher rank or greater dignity than a monarch can be described; and , the missionaries in speaking of "God" are forced to use the' native word for "King."

That among other blessings of civilisation the Britain has introduced the best-educated of the Siamese to "swear" words that a special vocabulary has had to be devised to describe the physical features and acts of so sacred a being as the King; and that the language contains no more sacred a name than his to enable the missionaries to express the idea of God—these are tempting points with which we have left ourselves no space to deal. We can but mention that the strange drama is now at an end; that "the weary Titan" can carry his burden no longer; and that with the very human words: "I am a frail man, with no children to receive the crown," "the descendant of the angels" and "the owner of all the earth" has abandoned both his royalty and his divinity, and the last of the absolute monarchs has retired into private life.