bore holes in the coffin for the same purpose.[1] The Malagasy sorcerer, for the cure of a sick man who had lost his soul, would make a hole in a burial-house to let out a spirit which he would catch in his cap and so convey to the patient's head.[2] The Chinese make a hole in the roof to let out the soul at death.[3] And lastly, the custom of opening a window or door for the departing soul when it quits the body is to this day a very familiar superstition in France, Germany, and England.[4] Again, the souls of the dead are thought susceptible of being beaten, hurt and driven like any other living creatures. Thus the Queensland aborigines would beat the air in an annual mock fight, held to scare away the souls that death had let loose among the living since last year.[5] Thus North American Indians, when they had tortured an enemy to death, ran about crying and beating with sticks to scare the ghost away; they have been known to set nets round their cabins to catch and keep out neighbours' departed souls; fancying the soul of a dying man to go out at the wigwam roof, they would habitually beat the sides with sticks to drive it forth; we even hear of the widow going off from her husband's funeral followed by a person flourishing a handful of twigs about her head like a flyflapper, to drive off her husband's ghost and leave her free to marry again.[6] With a kindlier feeling, the Congo negroes abstained for a whole year after a death from sweeping the house, lest the dust should injure the delicate substance of the ghost;[7] the Tonquinese avoided house-cleaning during the festival when the souls of the dead came back to their
- ↑ Morgan, 'Iroquois,' p. 176.
- ↑ Flacourt, 'Madagascar,' p. 101.
- ↑ N. B. Dennys, 'Folk-Lore of China,' p. 22.
- ↑ Monnier, 'Traditions Populaires,' p. 142; Wuttke, 'Volksaberglaube,' p. 209; Grimm, 'D. M.' p. 801; Meiners, vol. ii. p. 761.
- ↑ Lang, 'Queensland,' p. 441; Bonwick ,'Tasmanians,' p. 187.
- ↑ Charlevoix, 'Nouvelle France,' vol. vi. pp. 76, 122; Le Jeune in 'Rel. des Jésuites,' 1634, p. 23; 1639, p. 44; Tanner's 'Narr.' p. 292; Peter Jones, 'Hist. of Ojebway Indians,' p. 99.
- ↑ Bastian, ' Mensch,' vol. ii. p. 323.
