BELIEFS ABOUT THE SOUL. 209 



•while on earth, is one of the tenets of modern spiritualism. The 

 Chinese believe that decapitation makes headless souls in hades. 

 During the T'aiping troubles as much as six hundred and sixty- 

 six dollars was paid for a head to be buried with a body, in order 

 to make a respectable appearance in the other world ! * The Aus- 

 tralian who has slain his enemy will cut off the right thumb of 

 the corpse, so that it can not throw the ghostly spear with the 

 mutilated hand. A West India planter, whose slaves were com- 

 mitting suicide in order that they might come to life in their 

 native land, cut off the heads and hands of the corpses, thus effect- 

 ually putting an end to the practice.! I^ China the souls of the 

 drowned are supposed to remain under water for three years, when 

 they seize the shadow of some passing man, pull him in, and thus 

 effect their own escape. Boatmen are in continual dread of these 

 demons, and stone pillars are erected on the spots where they 

 ■were drowned in order to control their souls. J Damascius tells 

 us that, in a battle fought near Rome by Valentinian against 

 Attila, the slaughter on both sides was so great that none escaped, 

 and, when the bodies had all fallen, the souls still stood upright 

 and continued fighting three whole days and nights, neither in- 

 ferior in activity of hands or fierceness of mind to living men. 

 The images of the soul were seen and the clashing of their armor 

 heard.* 



The idea of the plurality of the soul is met with in the oldest 

 records of man, and is universally accepted by savage tribes 

 to-day. The Egyptians considered man to have a soul, ha, repre- 

 sented by a hawk with a human head ; a shade, khehi ; a spirit 

 or intelligence, lihu, into which it became changed as a " being 

 of light " ; an existence, ka ; besides life, anJch. The soul, ba, only 

 revisited the body. | The Hebrews have nepesh, the animal life ; 

 Tuali, the human principle of life ; and nesliamah, life considered 

 as an inspiration of the Almighty, and from these the Rabbins 

 taught the threefold nature of the soul.^ The Persians divided 

 the soul into five parts : The ferolier, or sensation ; the hoo, intel- 

 ligence; the rough, imagination, volition; the akho, conscience; 

 and the jan, animal life. Of these, the first one alone was ac- 

 countable for the deeds done in the body.^ The Chinese believe 

 in three souls and six spirits : the latter, being animal, go down 

 into the earth at death, while, of the souls, one goes down into 



* Williams's " Middle Kingdom," vol. ii, 244. 

 f Tyler, "Primitive Culture," vol. i, p. 451. 



■j;. Du Bose, " Dragon, Image, and Demon," p. 454. 



* Southcy, " Commonplace-Book," vol. i, p. 287. 



I Birch, in Wilkinson's " Ancient Egypt," vol. iii, p. 4C.5, note. 



^ Farrar, " Language," p. 188. 



^ Fraser, " History of Nadir Shah " ; cf . Emerson, " Indian Myths," p. 179, 



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