TRANSFORMATION 187 



in flocks at night uttering a mournful hiss, the shades 

 of the dead. 1 The Isanna think that the souls of the 

 brave enter beautiful birds and enjoy good fruits, 

 but cowards become reptiles. 2 The common fate of a 

 Bororo of Central Brazil, whether man or woman, is to 

 become after death a red bird called arara. The 

 red araras are Bororo ; indeed the Boror6 go further 

 and say : "We are araras." Consequently they never 

 eat araras ; they only kill wild ones to obtain their 

 feathers for personal ornament. They never kill the 

 tame ones which they keep for the same purpose ; 

 but on the other hand when a tame bird dies they 

 mourn for it. The dead of other peoples are believed 

 to become other birds. The baris, or medicine-men, 

 however change after their death into such animals 

 as are reckoned the best game certain kinds of large 

 fish capivaras tapirs and caymans. When one of 

 these is caught it has to be subjected to a process 

 which is called by Dr. von den Steinen consecration 

 (einsegnung], but which from his description is rather 

 a desacralisation or driving-out of the bari-soul. 3 



Even from Europe, civilised and Christian as we 

 are pleased to think it, the belief in transformation has 

 by no means yet disappeared. Both in England and 

 in Ireland butterflies or moths are looked upon as 

 souls of deceased persons. 4 In Cornwall, King 

 Arthur was up to the latter years 'of the eighteenth 

 century, if not later, thought to be still living in the 

 form of a raven or a chough. In Nidderdale the 

 country people say that nightjars embody the souls of 



1 Dobrizhoffer, ii. 270. 2 Int. Arch. xiii. Suppl. 127. 



3 von den Steinen, 511, 492. 



4 Choice Notes, Folklore, 61 j JV. and Q. 5th ser. vii. 284. 



