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Ritual and style across cultures 183

He makes much use of metonomy, as in line 27 (“praised be the names of those”
for “praised be those”), in line 28 (“from your hands” for “from you”), and in
line 29 (“from your tongues” for “from you”). Metonomy adds pathos to the dis-
course by elevating the particularity of its contents. Further, we find repeatedly
rhetorical three-part lists:

32 imat saxelsa da imat kacobas
to the names and to the humanity,
33 da imat vaz ˇkacobas
and to the virility
34 da imat kalobas,
and to the femininity of those,
35 vinc gverdit dagidian,
that accompany you,
36 avlil-c ˇavlilni mrude tvals ar gamogaqoleben,
and cast no disparaging looks at you,
37 tkven pativsa scemt da isinic pativsa gcemen.
˙
˙
whom you honor and by whom you are honored.
38 ˙ rmertma gaumarˇ Zos suqvelas,
God shall give his favour to all.

Here two such three-part lists follow one another. We encounter important cul-
tural concepts like that of the family name (saxeli); vaz ˇkacoba, which could be
translated by “proper virility” (line 33), and of kaloba (34), “proper femininity”
(see Kotthoff 1991b and 1995 for a discussion of the gender politics of the Geor-
gian toasts), as well as the term for honor and deference (pativi). Further mean-
ings, that do not need to be made explicit, are associated with these terms; they
are invoked by virtue of the shared understanding of the participants.
Again and again there appear religious formulas, as in (38). Hence, it is not
surprising that the toast elicits a religious formula as response.

46 E: amin, amin, amin.
amen, amen, amen.

A round of toasting ends normally when all participants have seconded with
“gaumarˇ Zos” (47).