In many primitive communities there is a taboo on mentioning a man’s name except in certain special circumstances, because his name is believed to contain within it something of himself, which would be lost and wasted if his name were uttered without first taking special precautions. This belief about words is widespread. Among the more primitive and the uneducated, it is universal. A remarkably matter-of- fact practical application of it occurs even in the present day in the Tibetan prayer-wheel. If, thinks the Tibetan peasant, a prayer uttered once does some good, then the same prayer uttered many times will do more good. Therefore, since he assumes that the efficacy lies in the prayer as an entity in itself, he writes it round the rim of a wheel, and then frugally employs the water of a mountain stream to turn it all day long, instead of wastefully employing his own lungs and lips to say it again and again.