ABSTRACT
In one of Agatha Christie's detective stories the murderess turns up at a fashionable luncheon party at Claridge's dressed up as her victim, whose death, of course, she wants to conceal as long as possible. "It was an awkward moment," says the narrator. The neighbor on the right drew in his breath sharply, while another guest began to talk violently about Russian opera. Every culture, of course, has these favored sources of metaphor which facilitate communication among its members and which, by the way, present such a headache to the translator. Common customs, trades, and, of course, the legends and beliefs of the tribe are fused with the language and modes of thought of any civilization. It is easy to see and easier to say that language is not everything. A society where everybody could only talk and nobody do would not survive a day.
