THE PRIMITIVE GHOST AND HIS RELATIONS. 681 



offered to the dead, for, of course, if the bread was damp, the ghost 

 could not get at it.* 



Once more, we saw that fire was a great stumbling-block to ghosts. 

 Hence in the Highlands of Scotland and in Burmah the fires in a house 

 used always to be extinguished when a death took place, no doubt lest 

 they should burn the ghost, f So in old Iran no fire was allowed to 

 be used in the house for nine days after a death,! and in later times 

 every fire in the Persian Empire was extinguished in the interval 

 between the death and burial of a king.* 



It might perhaps be thought that the common practice of fasting 

 after a death was a direct consequence of this disuse of fire ; and there 

 are facts which appear at first sight to show that it was so. Thus the 

 Chinese, though they are not allowed to cook in the house for seven 

 days after a death, are not prohibited from eating food which has been 

 prepared elsewhere ; indeed, during this period of mourning their 

 wants are regularly supplied by their neighbors.! From this it would 

 appear that the prohibition only extends to food cooked in the house 

 of mourning. But this explanation will not suit the German supersti- 

 tion, that while the passing-bell is tolling no one within hearing should 

 eat. A For here the prohibition evidently extends to all the food in 

 the neighborhood. The key to the solution of this problem will per- 

 haps be found in the Saraoan usage. Q We are told that in Samoa, 

 " while a dead body is in the house, no food is eaten under the same 

 roof ; the family have their meals outside or in another house. Those 

 who attended the deceased were formerly most careful not to handle 

 food, and for days were fed by others as if they were helpless infants." 

 Observe here, firstly, that the objection is not to all eating, but only 

 to eating under the same roof with the dead ; and, secondly, that those 

 who have been in contact with the dead may eat but may not touch 

 their food. Now, considering that the ghost could be cut, burned, 

 drowned, bruised with stones, and squeezed in a door (for it is a rule 

 in Germany not to slam a door on Saturday for fear of jamming a 

 ghost), J it seems not unreasonable to suppose that a ghost could be 



* Spiegel, " Eranische Alterthumskunde," iii, p. 705. 



f Brand, ii, p. 235 ; James Logan, "The Scottish Gael,'' ii, p. 387 ; Forbes, "British 

 Burmah," p. 94. 



% Spiegel, ibid., p. 706. 



* Diodorus, xvii, c. 114. 



| Gray, " China," i, pp. 287, 288. Cf. Apuleius, " Metam.," ii, c. 24. Similarly among 

 the Albanians there is no cooking in the house for three days after a death, and the fam- 

 ily is supported by the food brought by friends. Hahn, " Albanesische Studien," p. 151. 

 So among the Cyclades, Brent, "The Cyclades," p. 221. 



A W. Sonntag, " Todtenbestattung," p. 175. Similar superstition in New England 

 (" Folk-lore Journal," ii, p. 24). 



Q Turner, "Nineteen Years in Polynesia," p. 228 ; cf. Taylor, "New Zealand," p. 163; 

 "Old New Zealand, by a Pakeha Maori," p. 124 sqq. ; Ellis, "Polynesian Researches," i, 

 p. 402. 



X Wuttke, 752. 



