THE PRIMITIVE GHOST AND HIS RELATIONS. 677 



barrier of fire or water between the living and the dead, and that 

 the conceptions of pollution and purification are merely the fictions 

 of a later age, invented to explain the purpose of a ceremony of which 

 the original intention was forgotten. Time forbids me to enter into 

 the wider question whether all forms of so-called ceremonial purifica- 

 tion may not admit of a similar explanation. I may say, however, 

 that there is evidence that some at least of these forms are best ex- 

 plained on this hypothesis. To one of the most important of these 

 forms of purification that of mothers after childbirth reference 

 will be made in the course of this paper. 



Such, then, are some of the modes adopted for the purpose of 

 excluding or barring the ghost. Before quitting the subject, how- 

 ever, I wish to observe that, as the essence of these proceedings was 

 simply the erection of a barrier against the disembodied spirit, they 

 might be, and actually were, employed for barring spirits in other 

 connections. Thus, for example, since to early man death means 

 the departure of the soul out of the body, it is obvious that the very 

 same proceedings which serve to exclude the soul after it has left the 

 body i. e., to bar the ghost, may equally well be employed to bar the 

 soul in the body i. e., to prevent it escaping ; in other words, they 

 may be employed to prevent a sick man from dying in fact, they 

 may be used as cures. Thus the Chinese attempt to frighten back 

 the soul of a dying man into his body by the utterance of wild cries 

 and the explosion of crackers, while they rush about with extended 

 arms to arrest its progress.* The use of water as a means of inter- 

 cepting the flying soul is perhaps best illustrated by the Circassian 

 treatment of the sick. It is well known that according to primitive 

 man the soul of a sleeper departs from his body to wander far away 

 in dreamland ; in fact, the only distinction which early man makes 

 between sleep and death is that sleep is a temporary, while death 

 is a permanent, absence of the soul. Obviously, then, on this view, 

 sleep is highly dangerous to a sick man, for if in sleep his soul de- 

 parts, how can we be sure that it will come back again ? Hence, 

 in order to insure the recovery of a sick man, one of the first 

 requisites is to keep him from sleeping. With this intention the 

 Circassians will dance, sing, play, and tell stories to a sick man by 

 the hour. Fifteen to twenty young fellows, naturally selected for 

 the strength of their lungs, will seat themselves round his bed and 

 make night hideous by singing in chorus at the top of their voices, 

 while from time to time one of their number will create an agreeable 

 variety by banging with a hammer on a plowshare which has been 

 thoughtfully placed for the purpose by the sick man's bed. But if, in 

 spite of these unremitting attentions, the sick man should have the 

 misfortune to fall asleep mark what follows they immediately dash 



* Hue, " L'Empire Chinois," ii, p. 241. 



