THE PRIMITIVE GHOST AND HIS RELATIONS. 679 



would seem to be found in the fact that, during her imprisonment 

 within the fiery circle, the woman washes herself daily for a week 

 with a mixture of salt and water,* for salt and water, as we know 

 from Theocritus,f is a regular specific against spirits. 



Of course it is possible that these fiery barriers may also be intended 

 to keep off evil spirits, and this is the second supplementary use to 

 which the proceedings for barring ghosts may be turned. This would 

 appear to have been the object with which, in Siberia, women after 

 childbirth cleansed themselves by leaping several times over a fire, 

 exactly as we saw that in Siberia mourners returning from a funeral 

 leap over a fire for the express purpose of shaking off the spirit of the 

 dead.J 



In China, the streets along which a funeral is to pass are previously 

 sprinkled with holy water, and even the houses and warehouses along 

 the street come in for their share, in case some artful demon might be 

 lurking in a shop, ready to pounce out on the dead man as he passed. 4 * 

 Special precautions are also taken by the Chinese during the actual 

 passage of the funeral ; in addition to the usual banging of gongs and 

 popping of crackers, an attempt is made to work on the cupidity of 

 the demons. With this view bank-notes are scattered, regardless of 

 expense, all along the road to the grave. The notes, I need hardly 

 observe, are bad, but they serve the purpose, and, while the ingenuous 

 demons are engaged in the pursuit of these deceitful riches, the soul 

 of the dead man, profiting by their distraction, pursues his way tran- 

 quilly behind the coffin to the grave. || 



In the Hervey Islands, in the South Pacific, after a death the ghosts 

 or demons are fought and soundly pummeled by bodies of armed men, 

 just as the Samogitians and old Prussians used to repel the ghostly 

 squadrons by sword-cuts in the air. A 



In Christian times bells have been used for a like purpose ; this, 

 of course, was the intention of the passing-bell. Q The idea that the 

 sound of brass or iron had power to put spirits to flight prevailed also 

 in classical antiquity, % from which it was perhaps inherited by me- 

 diaeval Christianity. 



I have still one observation to make on the means employed to bar 

 ghosts, and it is this. The very same proceedings which were resorted 



* Bock, op. cit., p. 260. f xxiv, 95, 96. 

 \ Meiners, " Geschichte der Religionen," ii, p. 107. 



# Gray, " China," i, p. 299. 



J Hue, " L'Empire Chinois," ii, p. 249 ; Gray, I. c. ; Doolittle, " Social Life of the 

 Chinese," p. 153 (ed. Paxton Hood). 



A Gill, " Myths and Songs from the South Pacific," p. 269 ; Bastian, ii, p. 341. Cf. 

 Wood, " Nat. Hist, of Man," ii, p. 562. 



t) Brand, " Popular Antiquities," ii, p. 202 ; Forbes Leslie, " Early Races of Scotland," 

 ii, p. 503. 



% Lucian, " Philopseudes," c. 15; Ovid, "Fasti," v, 441; cf. Professor Robertson 

 Smith in " Journal of Philology," vol. xiii, No. 26, p. 283, note. 



