THE PRIMITIVE GHOST AND HIS RELATIONS. 675 



funeral stepped over fire,* and in China they sometimes do so to this 

 day.f Taken in connection with the Siberian custom, the original in- 

 tention of this ceremony of stepping over fire at Rome and in China 

 can hardly have been other than that of placing a barrier of fire be- 

 tween the living and the dead. But, as has been the case with so 

 many other ceremonies, this particular ceremony may well have been 

 practiced long after its original intention was forgotten. For customs 

 often live on for ages after the circumstances and modes of thought 

 which gave rise to them have disappeared, and in their new environ- 

 ment new motives are invented to explain them. As might have been 

 expected, the custom itself of stepping over fire often dwindled into a 

 mere shadow of its former self. Thus the South Slavonians returning 

 from a funeral are met by an old woman carrying a vessel of live 

 coals. On these they pour water, or else they take a live coal from 

 the hearth and fling it over their heads. J The Brahmans contented 

 themselves with simply touching fire,* and in Ruthenia the mourn- 

 ers merely look steadfastly at the stove or place their hands on it.|| 



So much for the barrier by fire. Next for the barrier by water. 

 " The Lusatian Wends," says Ralston, A " still make a point of plac- 

 ing water between themselves and the dead as they return from a 

 burial, even breaking ice for the purpose if necessary." In many parts 

 of Germany, in modern Greece, and in Cyprus, water is poured out 

 behind the corpse when it is carried from the house, in the belief that, 

 if the ghost returns, he will not be able to cross it.Q Sometimes by 

 night they pour holy water before the door ; the ghost is then thought 

 to stand and whimper on the farther side.J The inability of spirits 

 to cross water might be further illustrated from the Bagman's ghastly 

 story in Apuleius,^ from Paulus's " History of the Lombards," f 

 from Giraldus Cambrensis's lt Topography of Ireland," ** and from 

 other sources, ff 



Another way of enforcing the water barrier was for the mourners 

 to plunge into a stream in the hope of drowning, or at least shaking 

 off, the ghost. Thus, among the Matamba negroes, a widow is bound 



* Festus, s. v. aqua et igne. 



f Gray, " China," i, pp. 287, 305. 

 % Ralston, "Songs," p. 319. 



* Monier Williams, " Religious Life and Thought in India," pp. 283, 288. 

 U Ralston, I. c. 



A " Songs of the Russian People," p. 320. 



Wuttke, 737 ; A. Kuhn, " Markische Sagen," p. 368 ; Temme, " Volkssagen der 

 Altmark," p. 77 ; Lammert, p. 105 ; Panzer, " Beitrag," i, p. 257 ; " Folk-lore Journal," 

 ii, p. 170; Toppen, "Aberglauben aus Masuren," p. 108; C. Wachsmuth, "Das Alte 

 Griechenland im neuem," p. 119. 



$ Wuttke, 748. $ " Metamorphoses," i, 19, cf. 13. 



J iii, c. 34. ** Ch. 19. 



f \ Grimm, " Deutsche Mythologie," iii, p. 434 ; Theocritus, 24, 92, 93 ; Homer, " Odyss," 

 xi, 26 sqq., Ovid, "Fasti," v, 441; Brent, "The Cyclades," pp. 441, 442; Dennys, 

 " Folk lore of China," p. 24 ; Lammert, " Volksmedezin," p. 103. 



