peoples there is no proof of the
existence of general taboo systems. Various particular prohibitions,
involving a sense of danger in certain things, are mentioned above; they
relate chiefly to corpses, to infected houses, to women in connection
with menstruation and childbirth,[1036] to certain official persons (as
the Roman flamen dialis). There are also the lists of unlucky days
(Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Roman). The origin of food prohibitions
(Hebrew, Pythagorean) is uncertain;[1037] they may have arisen, as is
suggested above, from general regard for sacred animals and plants, or
from totemistic relations, or from other conditions unknown to us; the
Hebrew lists of forbidden animals may have been gradually expanded under
the guidance of antagonism to surrounding non-Yahwistic cults. Whether
the ancient taboo usages are the remains of older more extensive systems
or represent the extreme point to which tabooism was carried by the
communities in question the data do not enable us to decide.

+626+. In various places, outside of the Polynesian area, we find terms
that bear a more or less close resemblance in signification to
taboo.[1038] Melanesian _tambu_ is that which has a sacred
character.[1039] The Borneo terms (_lali_, _pemate_, _mali_, _penti_)
are mentioned just above, and there is the _pomali_ of Timor (in the
Malayan Archipelago). The Malagasy _fady_ is defined as 'dangerous,
prohibited.'[1040] In Gabun (West Africa) _orunda_ is said to mean
'prohibited to human beings.'[1041] The Hebrew _tam[=e]_ is used of
things dangerous, not to be touched, ritually defiling,[1042] and this
sense sometimes attaches to the term _qadosh_ (rendered in the English
version by 'holy'), which involves the presence of a supernatural (and
therefore dangerous) quality.[1043]

+627+. From all the facts known it may be concluded that the conception
of taboo exists or has existed in some form in a great part of the
world,[1044] though its development has differed greatly in different
regions. In general its prevalence appears to have been in inverse
proportion to that of totemism--it is lacking or feeble in the chief
totemic centers, Australia and North America, and strongest in
Polynesia, where totemism is hardly recognizable. It may be said that,
while totemism appears in those forms of social life that have been
created by hunting communities,[1045] taboo is the product of more
settled societies, in which agriculture plays an