Note 3 — Chapter V · THE INTERPRETATION OF ANDAMANESE CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS: CEREMONIAL (continued 2)

The fear of night, or rather, since that fear is rarely more than potential, the feeling that night is a time of insecurity, is part of the general attitude of fear or respect towards the forces of nature that are believed to be possible sources of danger to the society. Now it has been shown that this particular attitude to nature finds expression in ritual prohibitions of various kinds. For instance, the Andaman Islander translates his feeling of the social value of food substances into the belief that such things must be treated with ritual precautions. Applying this to the case before us, we must first recognize that to the Andaman Islander the alternation of day and night and the singing of the cicada are not separate phenomena but are two parts or aspects of one and the same recurring event. Now, the night and the day are things that cannot be handled, i.e., cannot be immediately subject to the actions of human beings, while the cicada can be handled. Hence it is to the cicada that the need of precaution is referred. Any interference with the cicada is forbidden, and this prohibition serves as a mark or expression of the social value of that alternation of night and day with which the cicada is so intimately associated3.