678 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



water over his face.* The intention of this latter proceeding can 

 hardly be doubtful it is a last effort to stop the soul about to take 

 flight forever. So among the Abipones, a dying man is surrounded 

 by a crowd of old crones brandishing rattles, stamping and yelling, 

 while every now and then one of them flings water over his face so 

 long as there is breath left in his body.f The same practice of throw- 

 ing water over the sick is observed also in China, Siam, Siberia, and 

 Hungary.^ 



By analogy, the origin of the Caffre custom of kindling a fire beside 

 a sick person,* the Russian practice of fumigating him,|| and the Per- 

 sian practice of lighting a fire on the roof of a house where any one is 

 ill, A may perhaps be found in the intention of interposing a barrier of 

 fire to prevent the escape of the soul. For, with regard to the custom 

 of lighting a fire on the roof, it is a common belief that spirits pass 

 out and in through a hole in the roof.Q In the same way I would 

 explain the extraordinary custom in Lao and Siam of surrounding a 

 mother after childbirth with a blazing fire, within which she has regu- 

 larly to stay for weeks after the birth of the child.J The object, I 

 take it, is to hem in the fluttering soul at this critical period with an 

 impassable girdle of fire. Conversely, among the Caffres a widow 

 must stay by herself beside a blazing fire for a month after her hus- 

 band's death no doubt in order to get rid of his ghost. $ If any con- 

 firmation of this interpretation of the Siamese practice were needed, it 



* Klemm, iv, p. 34. 



j- Dobritzhoffer, " Account of the Abipones," ii, p. 266. Among the Indians of Lower 

 California, if a sick man falls asleep, they knock him about the head till he wakes, with 

 the sincere intention of saving his life (Bancroft, i, p. 569). Similarly, Caffres when cir- 

 cumcised at the age of fourteen are not allowed to sleep till the wound is healed (Camp- 

 bell, " Travels in South Africa," p. 514). 



% Gray, i, p. 278 ; Pallegoix, i, p. 294 ; Bowring, i, p. 121 ; Klemm, x, 254 : " Folk- 

 lore Journal," ii, p. 102. In Tiree a wet shirt is put on the patient, id., i, p. 16*7. 



* Lichtenstein, i, p. 258. 



|| Ralston, " Songs of the Russian People, p. 380. 



A Klemm, vii, p. 142. 



Wuttke, 725, 755 ; Bastian, " Mensch," ii, pp. 319, 323 ; id., " Die Seele," p. 15 ; 

 Ralston, " Songs," p. 314 ; J. T. Brent, "The Cyclades," p. 437 ; Dennys, " Folk-lore of 

 China," p. 22 ; Lammert, " Folksmedezin," p. 103. 



% Carl Bock, " Temples and Elephants," p. 259 ; Bowring, i, p. 120 ; Pallegoix, i, p. 

 223. Cf. Forbes, " British Burmah," p. 46 ; Darmesteter, " Zend-Avesta," i, p. xciii ; Ellis, 

 " History of Madagascar," i, p. 151. A relic of this custom is seen in the old Scotch 

 practice of whirling a fir-candle three times round the bed on which the mother and child 

 lay (C. Rogers, " Social Life in Scotland," i, p. 135). Among the Albanians a fire is kept 

 constantly burning in the room for forty days after birth ; the mother is not allowed to 

 leave the house all this time, and at night she may not even leave the room ; and any 

 one during this time who enters the house by night is obliged to leap over a burning 

 brand (Hahn, " Albanesische Studien," p. 149). In the Cyclades, for many days after a 

 birth, no one may enter the house by night. The mother does not go to church for 

 forty days after the birth (Brent, pp. 180, 181). 



% Lichtenstein, i, p. 259. 



