36 TIIE OKIGIN OF ANIMAL-WOKSIIIP. 



But how out of the desire to propitiate tin s second per 

 sonality of a deceased man (the words &quot; ghost &quot; or &quot; spirit &quot; 

 are somewhat misleading, since the savage believes that 

 the second personality reappears in a form equally tan 

 gible with the first) does there grow up the worship of 



him lying quietly asleep, describes where he has been, and what he lias done, 

 his rude language fails to state the difference between seeing and dreaming 

 that he saw, doing and dreaming that he did. From this inadequacy of his 

 language it not only results that he cannot truly represent this difference to 

 others, but also that he cannot truly represent it to himself. Hence, in the 

 absence of an alternative interpretation, his belief, and that of those to whom 

 he tells his adventures, is that his other self has been away and came back 

 when he awoke. And this belief, which we find among various existing sav 

 age tribes, we equally find in the traditions of the early civilized races. 

 5. The conception of another self capable of going away and returning, re 

 ceives what to the savage must seem conclusive verifications from the abnor 

 mal suspensions of consciousness, and derangements of consciousness, that 

 occasionally occur in members of his tribe. One who has fainted, and cannot 

 bo immediately brought back to himself (note the significance of our own 

 phrases &quot;returning to himself,&quot; etc.) as a sleeper can, shows him a state in 

 which the other self has been away for a time beyond recall. Still more is 

 this prolonged absence of the other self shown him in cases of apoplexy, cata 

 lepsy, and other forms of suspended animation. Here for hours the other 

 self persists in remaining away, and on returning refuses to say where he has 

 been. Further verification is afforded by every epileptic subject, into whose 

 body, during the absence of the other self, some enemy has entered ; for how 

 else does it happen that the other self on returning denies all knowledge of 

 what his body has been doing ? And this supposition that the body has been 

 &quot; possessed&quot; by some other being, is confirmed by the phenomena of som 

 nambulism and insanity. 6. What, then, is the interpretation inevitably put 

 upon death ? The other self has habitually returned after sleep, which simu 

 lates death. It has returned, too, after fainting, which simulates death much 

 more. It has even returned after the rigid state of catalepsy, which simulates 

 death Very greatly. Will it not return also after this still more prolonged 

 quiescence and rigidity 3 Cleady it is quite possible quite probable even. 

 The dead man s other self is gone away for a long time, but it still exists some 

 where, far or near, and may at any moment come back to do all he said he 

 would do. Hence the various burial-rites the placing of weapons and valu 

 ables along with the body, the daily bringing of food to it, etc. I hope here 

 after to show that, with such knowledge of the facts as he has, this interpreta 

 tion is the most reasonable the savage can arrive at. Let me here, however, 

 by way of showing how clearly the facts bear out this view, give one illustra 

 tion out of many. &quot; The ceremonies with which they [the Veddahs] invoke 

 them [the shades of the dead] are few as they are simple. The most common 



