Semitic magic : its origins and development

138
ROYAL TABU.
past, or death may ensue to both mother and child.^ The
evidence, therefore, that we have before us, seems to prove
that this is the solution of the problem. Spirits both
male and female could manifestly intermarry in the tribe,
and such persons as gave evidence of demoniac or divine
selection were carefully tabooed, lest communion with them
should bring down the jealous spirit wrath.
"We may leave these tabus to pass on to the instances
of the Royal Tabu, or special tabu on kings, among the
Semites. It is a well-recognized custom among savage
races that their chief shall be subject to special tabus
which are not binding upon the common people, for in
primitive times the more prominent the chief is the more
does he become the representative figure-head of the
tribe. There is no need to give the details of savage
customs, which are well known, and require no further
elucidation.^ Among the Assyrians traces of this E-oyal
Tabu occur in the * hemerology * texts. There are certain
acts from which the king must abstain on the seventh,
fourteenth, nineteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth day
of the month ; that is to say, every seventh day with
the forty-ninth (seven x seven) day from the first of
the preceding month. For instance, " The seventh day
(of the second Elul) is the festival of Marduk and
Sarpanitum. A lucky day. An evil day. The shepherd
1 Baldensperger, P.E.F., 1894, 143. It is an old custom among the
Sephardim, if labour is protracted, to set a chair in the middle of the
room for Sitt Miriam (the Lady Mary), who is invited to come in and
assist, but as soon as the child arrives is as hurriedly invited to retire
(Masterman, Jewish Customs^ Bibl. Worlds xxii, 248).
^ The whole matter of savage tabus on royalty is set forth in Frazers
Golden Bough.