Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

4i8 SPECIAL FORMS OF SPEECH
Jakun it is the Camphor-tree Spirit which has to be
the use of the taboo jargon is only-
propitiated ; and
one part of the necessary ritual, which also includes
abstinence from certain kinds of food, and from
washing and bathing, as well as the offering of
portions of each meal to the spirit. Moreover, during
the camphor hunts, the taboo language must be used
not only by the hunters absent in the jungle, but also
by the men and women left behind in the village or
settlement.^ All this points to its being a genuine
traditional usage of ancient date.
Methods of Formation.
Speaking generally, the various devices by means
of which these peculiar jargons seek to avoid the
forms of common speech may be classified under
the following heads :
(i) Use of an archaic form of the ordinary word,
where such a " doublet " exists.
(2) Deliberate modification of form, sometimes
according to a definite system, perhaps originally-
based on the analogy of some particular pair of
" doublets," and therefore in some cases not easily-
distinguishable from (i).
(3) Use of a rare or obsolescent synonym, entirely-
distinct in form and origin from the ordinary word.
(4) Use of a synonym derived from a foreign
sometimes this is further modified by the
language ;
application of the method of (2).
involves the temporary or permanent that it is ultimately based on the same
abandonment of many ordinary words principle as the other, viz. the
in favour of synonyms coined or deliberate severance of sacred things
adapted to meet these exigencies. from things of ordinary everyday life.
With this form of taboo I am not '
J. R. A.S., S. B., No. 8, p. 103 ;
otherwise concerned than to point out No. 26, pp. 39, 40.