posed to feed on the viands set before them, we come upon difficult questions, which will be met with again in discussing the theory of sacrifice. Even where the thought is certainly that the departed soul eats, this thought may be very indefinite, with far less of practical intention in it than of childish make-believe. Now and then, however, the sacrificers themselves offer closer definitions of their meaning. The idea of the ghost actually devouring the material food is not unexampled. Thus, in North America, Algonquin Indians considered that the shadow-like souls of the dead can still eat and drink, often even telling Father Le Jeune that they had found in the morning meat gnawed in the night by the souls. More recently, we read that some Potawatomis will leave off providing the supply of food at the grave if it lies long untouched, it being concluded that the dead no longer wants it, but has found a rich hunting-ground in the other world.[1] In Africa, again, Father Cavazzi records of the Congo people furnishing their dead with supplies of provisions, that they could not be persuaded that souls did not consume material food.[2] In Europe the Esths, offering food for the dead on All Souls', are said to have rejoiced if they found in the morning that any of it was gone.[3] A less gross conception is that the soul con-
- ↑ Le Jeune in 'Rel. des Jés.' 1634, p. 16; Waitz, vol. iii. p. 195.
- ↑ Cavazzi, 'Congo,' &c., book i. 265.
- ↑ Grimm, 'D. M.' p. 865, but not so in the account of the Feast of the Dead in Boecler, 'Ehsten Abergl. Gebr.' (ed. Kreutzwald), p. 89. Compare Martius, 'Ethnog. Amer.' vol. i. p. 345 (Gês). The following passage from a spiritualist journal, 'The Medium,' Feb. 9, 1872, shows this primitive notion curiously surviving in modern England. 'Every time we sat at dinner, we had not only spirit-voices calling to us, but spirit-hands touching us; and last evening, as it was his farewell, they gave us a special manifestation, unasked for and unlooked for. He sitting at the right hand of me, a vacant chair opposite to him began moving, and, in answer to whether it would have some dinner, said "Yes." I then asked it to select what it would take, when it chose croquets des pommes de terre (a French way of dressing potatoes, about three inches long and two wide. I will send you one that you may see it). I was desired to put this on the chair, either in a tablespoon or on a plate. I placed it in a tablespoon, thinking that probably the plate might be broken. In a few seconds I was told that it was eaten, and looking, found the half of it gone, with the marks showing the teeth.' (Note to 2nd ed.)
