670 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the principle of "sit tibi terra gravis.'''' This is the origin of funeral 

 cairns and tombstones. As the ghosts of murderers and their victims 

 are especially restless, every one who passes their graves in Arabia, in 

 Germany, and in Spain, is bound to add a stone to the pile. In Old- 

 enburg (and no doubt elsewhere) if the grave is shallow the ghost will 

 certainly walk.* 



One of the most striking ways of keeping down the dead man is to 

 divert the course of a river, bury him in its bed, and then allow the 

 river to resume its course. It was thus that Alaric was buried, and 

 Commander Cameron found the same mode of burial still in vogue for 

 chieftains among a tribe in Central Africa, f 



The expedient of inclosing the grave with a fence too high for the 

 ghost to " take " it, especially without a run, is common to Finland 

 and the South Seas. J 



Another simple but effectual plan was to nail the dead man to the 

 coffin (the Tschuwasche again),* or to tie his feet together (among the 

 Arabs), or his neck to his legs (among the Troglodytes, Damaras, and 

 New-Zealanders).| The Wallachians drive a long nail through the 

 skull and lay the thorny stem of a wild rose-bush on the corpse. A The 

 Calif ornians clinched matters by breaking his spine. () The corpses of 

 suicides and vampires had stakes run through them. J 



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,| and Greek murderers used to hack 

 off the extremities of their victims with a similar object.^ 



Again, various steps were taken to chase away the lingering ghost 

 from the home he loved too well. Thus the New-Zealanders thrash 

 the corpse in order to hasten the departure of the soul ; ** the Algon- 

 quinsff beat the walls of the death-chamber with sticks to drive out the 

 ghost ; the Chinese knock on the floor with a hammer ; \\ and the Ger- 



*Sonntag, " Todtenbestattung," p. 197; Brand's "Popular Antiquities," ii, p. 809 ; 

 Wuttke, "Deutsche Aberglaube," 754, cp. 739, 748, 756, 753, 761 ; Klemra, "Cultur- 

 geschichte," ii, p. 225 ; Waitz, " Anthropologic der Naturvolker," ii, pp. 195, 324, 325, 

 524 ; Id., iii, p. 202. 



f "Across Africa," i, p. 110. 



% Castren, op. cit., 121 ; Bastian, ii, p. 368. 



* Bastian, ii, pp. 337, 365. 



fl Strabo, xvi, 17 ; Diodorus, iii, 33 ; "Wood, " Natural History of Man," i, p. 348 ; 

 Yates, " New Zealand," p. 136. 



A H. F. Tozer, " Researches in the Highlands of Turkey," ii, p. 92. 



Q Bastian, ii, p. 331. 



$ Bastian, ii, p. 365 ; Ralston, p. 413 ; heads of vampires cut off (Wuttke, 765 ; Top- 

 pen, " Aberglauben aus Masurcn," p. 114; Tettau u. Temme, " Volkssagen," p. 275). 



X Tylor, "Primitive Culture," i, p. 451. 



J Suidas, s. /uctcrxaAicrflTJvai, fj.airxo-\i<TfxaTa. 



** Klemm, iv, p. 325 ; Yates, "New Zealand," p. 136. 



ft Brinton, " Myths of the New World," p. 255. \% Gray, " China," i, p. 280. 



