ABSTRACT
B e f o r e beginning to examine things taboo, with a view to seeing whether they possess any common quality, whether any general statement can be made with regard to them, whether, in fine, it is possible to frame any induction from them, it is plain that we must discriminate between things which I will venture henceforth to distinguish as things taboo and things tabooed. Both classes are “ infectious ” and communicate their mysterious and dangerous qualities to whatever they come in contact with ; but things tabooed are those which would not possess the taboo-infection, if they had not derived it from contact with something else taboo or tabooed, whereas things taboo are those which do not derive the contagion from anything else, but have it inherent in them selves. A single thing taboo might infect the whole universe; on the Loango Coast, a divine king's glance would infect a river and the river infect all in its course ;* in modern Polish folk lore a corpse may not be carried over a stream,2 for the same reason; taboo persons are generally not allowed to be seen by the sun, for they would infect him, and he the universe.
