BELIEFS ABOUT THE SOUL. 207 



burned, wlien they liad rest. The Finns and Lithuanians and 

 later nearly all Indo-European people called the Milky Way the 

 Birds' Way — that is, the way of souls.* The Moslems say that 

 the souls of the faithful assume the form of snow-white birds, and 

 nestle under the throne of Allah between death and the resurrec- 

 tion.! Another account says that in the intermediate state, until 

 the resurrection, the souls of martyrs, according to tradition re- 

 ceived from Mohammed, rest in heaven in the crops of beautiful 

 green birds who eat of the fruits and drink of the rivers in that 

 charmed region. J In China on the twenty-first day of the period 

 of mourning for the dead three large paper birds resembling 

 storks are placed on high poles in front of the house of mourning. 

 These birds are supposed to carry the souls of the departed to 

 Elysium, and during the next three days prayers are addressed to 

 the ten kings of the Buddhist hades calling on them to hasten the 

 flight of the departed soul to the Hindoo paradise.* On the Bos- 

 porus flocks of birds about the size of a thrush fly up and down 

 the channel, and are never seen to rest on sea or land, and are 

 believed by the boatmen to be the souls of the damned, condemned 

 to perpetual motion. | Pliny -^ tells that it is stated in Procon- 

 nesus that the soul of Aristeas was seen to fly out of his mouth 

 under the form of a raven. The Aztecs believed that the souls of 

 those killed in battle, of prisoners sacrificed by the enemy, and of 

 women dying in childbirth, went to the sun, where they passed 

 four years of delightful existence. They were then turned into 

 birds and animated the clouds with their brilliant plumage and 

 harmonious voices, free to rise to the vaults of heaven or to de- 

 scend to earth to taste the nectar of the flowers.^ When a Kailta 

 dies it is thought that the soul is carried to the spirit-land by a 

 little bird, and, if it has been a wicked soul, it is overtaken on the 

 way and devoured by a hawk or other bird of prey. J Among the 

 Apaches the owl, the eagle, and perfectly white birds were re- 

 garded as possessing souls of divine origin. % The Maricopas 

 believe that after death they will return and live in their ancient 

 homes on the banks of the Colorado River, where their heads will 

 be turned into owls and the other parts of their bodies into differ- 

 ent animals. I The Icannas of Brazil think the souls of the 



* Kclley, " Indo-European Folk-Lore," p. 103. 

 t Brewer, " Dictionary of Plirase and Fable," p. 840. 



X Koran, Sale, "Preliminary Discourse," section 4 ; Alger, "Future Life," p. 201. 

 " Jones, " Credulities," p. 373. 



I Hardwick, "Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore," p. 158. 

 ■^ " Natural History," vol. vii, p. 53. 



^ Bancroft, " Native Races," vol. iii, p. 533 ; Alger, " Future Life," p. 73 ; Eiart, " Tlie 

 Aztecs," p. 86. % Joaquin Miller, " Among the Modocs," p. 241. 



^ Schoolcraft, " Archaeology," vol. v, p. 209. 

 % Bartlett, "Personal Narrative of Exploration," voL ii, p. 222. 



