"The Kaffir women," says Appleyard, "have many
words peculiar to themselves. This is the result of a
custom called ukuUonipa, which forbids them to pro-
nounce those words in which is found a sound which
also occurs in the names of their nearest male re-
latives." An analogous custom, tepi, which banishes
from the language of Tahiti the syllables which com-
pose the names of the kings and queens, has also
existed among the ancient Kaffirs. Thus the Ama-
mbalu, out of respect for their chief U-la-iiya, replace
the word ilanga, sun, by the word isota. For a similar
reason the Amagqunu-kwebi use the word 'mmela,
immela, instead of 'si-she-tshe, which is the general
term for knife. It is easy to imagine the confusion
which such quaint customs have produced, repeated
throughout long generations. It is curious to find
these puerilities among two such different races as the
Kaffirs and the Polynesians. Max Miiller, in pursuit
of his chimeras, Turanianism and Monogenesis, sees in
the phenomenon the result of I know not what ethnic
relationship. I am rather inclined to regard this coin-
cidence as the effect of a similar social and mental
condition, the servile and superstitious respect of
chiefs and ancestors. We may also add, a naive ten-
dency to create new words, to vary and maltreat old
words; a tendency which is visible in the various slang
dialects, and noted also among the Indians of America.
