On Certain Burial Customs as Illustrative of the Primitive Theory of the Soul (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1885 Excerpt: ... burial still in vogue for chiefs amongst a tribe of Central Africa. Du Chaillu was informed that the Obongos, a dwarf tribe of negroes on the Equator, sometimes bury their dead thus.1 The expedient of enclosing the grave with a fence too high for the ghost to "take" it, especially without a run, is common to the Finnlanders and the Dyaks.2 Another simple but effectual plan i3 to nail the dead man to the coffin (the Chuwashe' again)3 or to tie his feet together (among the Arabs), or his hands together (in Voigtland),4 or his neck to his legs (among the Troglodytes, Damaras, and New Zealanders).5 The Wallachians drive a long nail through the skull and lay the thorny stem of a wild rose bush on the shroud.6 The Californians and Damaras clinched matters by breaking his spine.7 The corpses of suicides and vampires had stakes run through them.8 Sometimes the heads of vampires are cut off,9 or their hearts torn out and hacked in pieces, and their bodies burned,10 or boiling water and vinegar are poured on their graves.11 Other mutilations of the dead were intended not so much to keep the dead man in his grave as to render his ghost harmless. Thus the Australians cut off the right thumb of a slain enemy, that his ghost might not be able to draw the bow,12 and Greek murderers used to hack off the extremities of their victims with a similar object.13 Again, various steps are taken to chase away the lingering ghost from the home he loves too well. Thus, the New Zealanders thrash the corpse in order to hasten the departure 1 Jordanes, "ftetica," c. xxx, 158; Cameron, "Across Africa," I, p. 110; Du Chaillu, " A Journey to Ashango-land," p. 321. 2 Castren, op. cit., p. 121; Bastian, " Mensch," II, p. 368. 3 Bastian, ib. p. 337; likewise the Cheremisse (ib. p. 365)...