ree had
its name, there was no word for 'tree' in general, nor for qualities
such as hard, soft, hot, cold, etc. Anything hard was 'like a stone,'
anything round 'like the moon,' and so on, the speaker suiting the
action to the word, and supplementing the meaning to be understood
by some gesture." [109] Here the original concrete form of language
can be clearly discerned. They had a sufficiency of names for all the
objects which were of use to them, and apparently verbal ideas were
largely conveyed by gesture. Captain Forsyth states [110] that though
the Korkus very seldom wash themselves, there exist in their language
eight words for washing, one for washing the face, another for the
hands and others for different parts of the body. Thus we see that
the verbal idea of washing was originally conceived not generally,
but separately with reference to each concrete object or noun, for
which a name existed and to which water was applied.

56. Concrete nature of primitive ideas.

The primitive languages consisted only of nouns or the names of
visible objects, possibly with the subsequent addition of a few names
for such conceptions as the wind and the voice, which could be heard,
but not seen. There were no abstract nor semi-abstract terms nor parts
of speech. The resulting inability to realise any abstract conception
and the tendency to make everything concrete is a principal and salient
characteristic of ethnology and primitive religion. [111] All actions
are judged by their concrete aspect or effects and not by the motives
which prompted them, nor the results which they produce. For a Hindu
to let a cow die with a rope round its neck is a grave caste offence,
apparently because an indignity is thus offered to the sacred animal,
but it is no offence to let a cow starve to death. A girl may be
married to inanimate objects as already seen, or to an old man or a
relative without any intention that she shall live with him as a wife,
but simply so that she may be married before reaching puberty. If she
goes through the ceremony of marriage she is held to be married. Yet
the motive for infant-marriage is held to be that a girl should begin
to bear children as soon as she is physically capable of doing so,
and such a marriage is useless from this point of view. Some castes
who cannot afford to burn a corpse hold a lighted brand to it or
kindle a little fire on the grave and consider this equivalent to
cremation. Promises