THE INDWELLING SPIRITS OF MEN. 795 



corporeal man ; (2) his soul, the vehicle of independent personal ex- 

 istence, which, at the death of the body, survives and continues its 

 career in the land of spirits ; (3) his spiritual body, which Dr. Mat- 

 thews terms his " third element." The Tshi-speaking negroes of 

 the Gold Coast that is, the Ashantis, Fantis, Wassaws, Gamans, 

 and several other tribes believe similarly in three entities : (1) The 

 corporeal man ; (2) his soul, or ghost ; (3) the indwelling spirit of 

 the living man, which they term his kra. 



Now, though the kra has frequently been confounded with the 

 soul or ghost, it is essentially distinct. The soul or ghost only 

 comes into being when the corporeal man ceases to exist, and so 

 may be considered to be the latter deprived of his material body ; 

 but the kra, the Tshi-speaking negro believes, existed independ- 

 ently before the birth of the man, and after his death will con- 

 tinue to exist equally independently of the soul or ghost. A kra 

 may have, and almost always has, been a kra in the bodies of other 

 men since deceased, and, at the death of the individual whose body 

 he is now tenanting, will seek to enter the body of some new-born 

 human being. Failing this, it enters the body of an animal, and, 

 if unable to enter the body either of a human being or of an ani- 

 mal, it becomes a sisa, a kra without a tenement, and wanders 

 about the earth, causing sickness to mankind. The ghost or soul 

 which, at the death of the corporeal man, proceeds to Dead-land, 

 and there continues the former vocations of the man, and for 

 whose service in Dead-land slaves and wives are sacrificed, and 

 arms, implements, and clothing buried with the corpse, is the 

 vehicle of individual personal existence, the true soul; and the 

 kra, whose connection with the man commences with the birth 

 and terminates at his death, is something quite different. 



The difference between the kra and the soul is also well shown 

 by the different results which ensue when they quit the body. 

 The kra can and does quit the body at will. Usually it does so 

 only during the sleep of the man, who is unconscious of its de- 

 parture, and its adventures are the occurrences of which the man 

 dreams. If it should leave while the man is awake, the latter is 

 only made conscious of it, if at all, by a yawn, a sneeze, a shudder, 

 or some such slight convulsion, which indicates to him that his 

 kra is going out. In any case, whether sleeping or waking, he 

 suffers no pain, feels no inconvenience, and is subject to no appar- 

 ent change consequent on the departure of his kra. The absence 

 of the kra is, however, dangerous, as it affords an opportunity for 

 a sisa, or kra without a tenement, to enter the vacant body, for 

 which the insisa are believed to be always on the lookout. The 

 man is not conscious of the entry of the sisa, and nothing hap- 

 pens until the kra returns and attempts to eject the intruder, 

 when the effect of the internal struggle is to throw the man into 



