TRANSFORMATION 249 



There are no proper ghosts in the Kojiki or Nihongi, 

 although the writers of these works were fond of 

 recording strange and miraculous occurrences. The 

 metamorphosed appearances mentioned in them are 

 never phantoms with a resemblance to the human 

 form, and possess no spiritual qualities. Even now 

 the hake-mono, though differing little from our ghost, 

 is quite distinct from the human mitama or tamashii 

 (soul)." 1 We may remind ourselves that a similar 

 distinction is drawn by the Angoni and the Achewa in 

 Central Africa between the animal or plant regarded 

 as the reincorporation of a dead man and the mzimu, 

 or spirit. With the former the surviving relatives do 

 not concern themselves, except that they will not 

 destroy or eat it ; the latter is the object of a cult. 2 



I n cases like these there is no second birth : the 

 metamorphosis is direct. Nor is the evidence less 

 cogent where the deceased is born again. When 

 Bata in bull-form was slain two drops of his blood fell 

 upon the door-posts and forthwith grew up into trees. 

 When the trees were cut down a splinter entered the 

 king's mistress' mouth and rendered her pregnant of 

 Bata once more. When an Ainu mother looks to see 

 whether her baby's ears are already pierced there is 

 no question of a soul taking flesh in a new body : it is 

 a new birth of the old body of an ancestor. It is true 

 that the Mongolian tale of Shduir Van speaks of his 

 soul as entering the empress' womb. Sheduir Van 

 was a Khotogait prince executed for conspiracy against 

 the Emperor of China. After his death the empress 

 gave birth to a child ; and the wise men declared that 



1 Aston, Shinto, 49. See supra, p. 178. 

 1 Supra, p. 169. 



