Note 1 — LARS PORSENA

There is a great opportunity for ethnological research in swearing of this sort. Why is it, for instance, that in India the insult “brother-in-law”, carrying with it the implication that a man has a liaison with his brother’s wife, is the one unforgiveable insult (and the first word therefore that the Imperialistic Englishman picks up thoughtlessly for general conversational purposes)? Why in Egypt is a man insulted best, paternally; “O you father of sixty dogs!” The answer will be found in a comparison of religions, the Hindu laying most stress on the decencies of family life in a large household, the Mohammedan on the passing down of male perfection from father to son.