4^0 Professor James George Frazer [Feb. 5^ 



The ancient Greeks believed that the soul of any man who had 

 just been killed was angry with his slayer and troubled him ; hence 

 even an involuntary homicide had to depart from his couutry for a 

 year until the wrath of the dead man had cooled down ; nor might 

 the slayer return until sacrifice had been offered and ceremonies of 

 purification performed. If his victim chanced to be a foreigner, the 

 homicide had to shun the country of the dead man as well as his 

 own. The legend of the matricide Orestes, how he roamed from 

 place to place, pursued and maddened by the ghost of his murdered 

 mother, reflects faithfully the ancient Greek conception of the fate 

 which overtakes the murderer at the hands of the ghost. The 

 Karens of Burma think that the ghosts of all who have died by 

 violence remain on earth and roam about invisible, stealing the souls 

 of men and so visiting the sufferer with mortal sickness. Accordingly 

 these vampire-like beings are exceedingly dreaded by the people, who 

 sacrifice to them and offer the most earnest prayers and supplications 

 to avert their wrath and cruel assaults. 



However, it is not always by fair words and propitiatory offerings 

 that the community seeks to rid itself of these invisible but dangerous 

 intruders. When the North American Indians had burned and 

 tortured a prisoner to death, they used to run through the village, 

 beating the walls, the furniture, and the roofs of the huts and yeUing 

 at the pitch of their voices to drive away the angry ghost of their 

 victim, lest he should seek to avenge the injuries done to his scorched 

 and mutilated body. Similarly, among the Papuans of Doreh, in 

 Dutch New Guinea, when a murder has been committed in the 

 village, the inhabitants assemble for several evenings successively and 

 shriek and shout to frighten away the ghost, in case he should 

 attempt to come back. The Yabim, a tribe in German New Guinea, 

 believe that " the dead can both help and harm, but the fear of their 

 harmful influence is predominant. Especially the people are of 

 opinion that the ghost of a slain man haunts his murderer, and 

 brings misfortune on him. Hence it is necessary to drive away the 

 ghost with shrieks and the beating of drums. The model of a canoe 

 laden Avith taro and tobacco is got ready to facilitate his departure." 

 The Fijians used to bury the sick and aged alive, and having done 

 so they always made a great uproar with bamboos, shell-trumpets, 

 and so forth, in order to scare away the spirits of the buried people 

 and prevent them from returning to their homes ; and by way of 

 removing any temptation to hover about their former abodes, they 

 dismantled the houses of the dead and hung them with everything 

 that in their eyes seemed most repulsive. 



It would be easy, but superfluous, to multiply evidence of the 

 terror which a belief in ghosts has spread among mankind. The 

 preceding examples may suffice for my present purpose, which is 

 merely to indicate the probability that this widespread superstition 

 has served a useful purpose by enhancing the sanctity of human life. 



