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MAY,
I956
Man
No.
62
that they do not know. Older men will sometimes, however, offer some explanation of the name, though not
always with any certainty or even, I think, conviction;
adding, maybe, that they have heard it from someone or
that people say that it is so. It soon becomes evident that,
in most cases at least, the stories they tell of why these
names were given to the clans are examples of what Max
Muller called 'disease of language,' stories invented by
someone to explain the names, playing on the literal meaning of the words or of words to which their sounds bear a
resemblance. The names are usually presented, however,
as being nicknames, conventionally thought to have been
given to the clans by the wives of their sons, bestowed on
account of some characteristic or habit of their members.
I give some illustrations.
The Akalingo clan are so called, it is said, because they
used to behave badly to their fellows and kinsmen, not being
able to abide that another should eat their food, and saying
that when it was a matter of food or other goods, unless
they were very close relatives indeed, they had no kinsmen.
The last two syllables of their name, lingo, mean, when
combined with the verb de, to cut kinship; and we may
conclude that the story that this clan were mean with their
kin derives from this purely verbal association. In doing so,
we reverse the construction of the Zande etymologists,
that people of a certain clan behaved in a certain manner
and therefore got a certain name, by saying that a chance
identity or similarity of sounds has led to an explanation of
the clan name and consequently to the attribution of certain
characteristics to its members in the past. The Abakundo
clan, who in Zande tradition were their chiefs in ancient
days before the ruling Avongara clan of today became
dominant, are said, with little respect for the composition
of the word, to have got their name because when they
killed an animal they used to put it for two or three days
in a granary, since they liked to eat meat when it was high
(kundo). The Angumbe clan bear a name which is the same
word as that used to denote a species of oil-bearing gourd,
and therefore it is attributed to them that in the past they
were exceptionally industrious cultivators and that they
chiefly planted in their gardens this gourd, which they preferred to all other food. The Abalingi clan are said to be
so called because their ancestors displayed great meanness
(lingi) in the matter of food. The Angbadimo clan were
noted for their dislike of their sisters' sons and their sons'
wives entering their huts, for these relatives are in the habit
of appropriating anything which takes their fancy. When
a sister's son visited them they would sit in the doorway
(ngbadimo) of their huts till he departed, to deny him
entrance. Hence their name. The Abakpara were another
this clan used to kill an animal they could not bear that
anyone but themselves should take its intestines (le), of
which they were very fond.
Probably all these derivations are to be regarded as
fictions, fanciful attempts, not taken very seriously by
anyone, to account for the names of clans, which, assuming
that, as is possible, they originally meanlt something, meant
something quite different from the meaning given them
in these xetiological stories. That what we are considering
today form part of the Zande ethnic and cultural complex, the usual Zande plural prefix a having been joined
to it.
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No.
62
Man
MAY,
I956
their centres. We are told that the Angbaga got their name
through addiction to this sport. Another foreign clan are
different.
70
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MAY,
I956
Man
Nos.
62,
63
case inl matters of detail in the stories related, but the type of
SHORTER NOTE
Ghost Marriages among the Singapore Chinese: A Further
groom's hat and bow tie are made of paper. A wad of 'hell bank
notes,' imitation money notes of large denominations, is stuffed
into the groom's top pocket. On each side of the pair are bamboo
and paper servants, the bride's bearing a cup and the groom's (out
of the picture) a real packet of cigarettes of a popular brand. In
63 figure
Since writing on Chinese ghost marriages last year
(MAN, 1955, 35) I have had a furthcr opportunity to bc present
at such a marriage and this timc to obtain a photograph of
effigies of the bridal pair seated together at a table round which
the ceremonies on their behalf took place. I was unfortunately not
able to be present for the actual 'wedding' which was carried out
in the City God's temple, but witnessed the associated ceremonies
which took place in a Dying House I in which I happened to be at
the time. The circumstances were as follows.
A Cantonese boy aged about fourteen had been sent back to
China by his family to continue his studies and while there had
died under somewhat obscurc circumstances. About a month aftcr
receiving news of his death, his mother had a dream in which her
dead son appeared and told her that he wished to marry a Hakka
girl who had just died somewhere in Ipoh, Perak. Since, the
mother told me, he had given no precise details in her dreamn, the
next day she called in a Cantonese female spirit medium and
through her the boy gave the name of the girl together with her
placc of birth and age, and details of her horoscope which were
subsequently found to be compatible with his.2 The mother said
that since the boy was obviously anxious to marry and his
marriage would make things easier when her younger son came
to take a wife 3 she had taken the advice of the medium and
decided to arrange a ghost marriage. At no time was any attempt
made to check the information about the girl given through the
medium.
The total cost of the marriage was approximately $200 Straits
(about ?23) and a priest was engaged to see to the necessary
arrangemcnts. He was one of a small group of professionals
belonging to a Cantonese branch of the Cheng I school of Taoism
who earn their living in Singapore by performing at funeral
ceremonies and at Cantonese occasional rites.4 The priest arranged
for the 'wedding' ceremony to be held in the temple, hired a
front of the servants stand ling or lunig p'ai, temporary bamboo and
paper soul tablets which are burnt after the ceremonies. In front
car.
At dawn, after the cercmonies were over, all the paper articles,
I 1.30 a.m. the effigies of the bride and groom were put into a
trishaw and transported to the temple for the 'wedding' from
including the bridc and groom, were taken outside into the back
vard. The couple werc placed inside their car and everything was
then dispatched to the other world by flame.
According to the Taoist priest in charge of the day's activities
Cantonese ghost marriages are still by no means rare in Singapore
and he has bccn engaged to perform them by peoplc, mainly
women, of various occupations and income.
Notes
7I
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