TRANSFORMATION 



211 



short time he died from anguish, and within a month 

 his two sons were killed by a catastrophe. 1 



The Chinese often think that a child who falls ill 

 and dies is a hateful demon which has come to tor- 

 ment the mother. Precautions must therefore be 

 taken against its return. For fear it may be re-born 

 of her she sometimes blackens the face of the dying or 

 just dead child, that it may not be able to find its way 

 back. Or a hand or merely a finger is cut off, appar- 

 ently in the belief that should it succeed in being 

 re-born, it would be recognised. 2 The Ainu say that 

 people are sometimes re-born into this world. Women 

 " should therefore carefully examine a baby's ears as 

 soon as it is born, to see whether they have been bored. 

 If they have, it is a certain sign that a departed 

 ancestor has come back, and if this be the case, he has 

 returned for some very good reason." It would seem 

 that he has some message from the other world. 8 

 Among the Chukchi the new-born child is believed to 

 be some ancestor come back to earth. Its nam& is 

 found by divining with an object such as a divining- 

 stone, or some part of the mother's or child's dress 

 such as a boot or cap, held suspended by the mother 

 while she pronounces in turn the names of all deceased 

 relatives and says after each one : " This has come.'' 

 When the suspended object begins to swing the name 

 is selected. The idea of the return of the dead is so 

 strong in the Chukchi mind that half of the proper 

 names have relation to it. Children are called by such 



1 De Groot, iv. 143, 452, 459. 



2 Miss Mary Lattimore, of Soochow, in Records of Women's 

 Conference on the Home Life of Chinese Women, Shanghai, 1900, 9, 



3 Batchelor, Ainu F. L. 237. 



