Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/681

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The Religious Beliefs of the Eghāp.
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had disappeared, leaving no traces. It was believed to have been a ghost which had come to visit him.

(j) Two men were in the bush burning charcoal. A ghost appeared before them, and soon afterwards they died.

(k) A man went for a walk in the evening, and on the path he saw a bag, which he picked up and took back with him. As he neared his hut the bag said, "Let me go." The man immediately dropped it and lied into his hut, where the bag followed him and beat him. To some of his friends he later on related his adventure. In the early morning he died. If the man had not related this ghost story in the night time, but had waited until the morning, he would not have died so suddenly.

(l) Two men went one day to the Nun River to fish. In the evening they returned to Bagam. As they approached the town they saw two figures coming towards them, and thinking that they were ghosts they hid in the long grass. The two beings were ghosts, one beneficent and the other malevolent, and when they came near to the place where the two men were hiding the malevolent ghost said to the other, "There is someone hidden in the grass." This was denied by its companion, but when the two fishermen heard them speaking they fled. Both of the ghosts pursued them, the malevolent one following the beneficent. As the latter ran rather slowly the other became very angry and wanted to go on by itself, but to this its companion would not agree. When the fishermen had returned to their huts they did not say anything about their adventure until the following morning.

(m) A man went to a stream in the vicinity of the town, and on reaching it he was seized by a ghost who came out of the water. He was taken straight away to the home of the dead. After a long stay there he returned to his town, accompanied by the ghost who had taken him away. He was commanded by the head-chief to relate all that he had seen. The ghost then placed a piece of camwood in