Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlvi. (1902), No. 13- 17 



in the same way as the Indians. In Siam the bearers 

 give the coffin a run three times round the house to make 

 the ghost giddy, so that it shall not know the way back. 



The soul passes out through the chimney or opening 

 at the top of the hut. To ensure that it does so, those 

 present in the hut raise cries and beat the walls of the 

 wigwam with sticks. 



With some savages the corpse remains in the hut for 

 a time till burial. During that time no fire must be 

 lighted, no sharp iron tool left about for fear the ghost 

 should hurt itself Inmates must not eat for fear of 

 swallowing the ghost. On the way to the grave the ghost 

 of the dead is exposed to danger from evil spirits. The 

 Chinese scatter bank notes (bad ones) on the road to 

 occupy the demons, and ring bells to keep them off.* 



What if a man supposed to have died turns up again ? 

 This is one of Plutarch's Roman Questions. " Why are 

 they who have been falsely reported dead in a strange 

 country, although they return home alive, not received 

 nor suffered to enter directly at the door, but forced to 

 climb up to the tiles of the house, and so to get down from 

 the roufe into the house ? " The reason is that the friends 

 are doubtful whether the returned wanderer is really alive 

 or not. He may be the ghost trying to get back into his 

 old home — a dangerous visitor. It will, therefore, be best 

 to treat him as a ghost, and not let him in at the regular 

 entrance. 



Amongst many nations there are legends of an 

 attempted return of the dead to life in their proper bodily 

 form. In Greece there is the story of Orpheus and 

 Eurydice. With the Indians there is the story of a man 

 who went to the village of the dead and brought back his 

 sister's soul in one pumpkin and her brains in another. 



* Cf. Yx3iZQr,Journ. Anlhrop. Inst., xv., 64. 



