BOTH] THE BODY AND ITS ASSOCIATED SPIRITS 153 



known as akar-toniba. The Warrau expression for the shadow is ameho- 

 lo-i, while al'-ohi is their word for 'heart' or for the heart's Spirit 

 which, heaving tlie body at death, becomes their Hehu, or Bush Spirit 

 (Sect. 99). The Ishind Caribs apj^lied the word akamboile [cf. main- 

 hmd Carib akatomha] to the spirit of a person whatever it might bo 

 Hke, the women speakhig of it as opoyem (RoP, 471); unfortunately 

 no information is given as to the particular part of the body (head, 

 heart, pulse, etc.) whence it was supposed to have emanated. It was 

 these same islanders, however, who held strong beliefs m a connection 

 between spirits and an individual's heart- and pulse-beats: "they 

 talked of the latter as the Sphit of the Hand [RoP, 4r>'2]; they spoke 

 of the Spirit-something near the heart asGonaaaior I^anichi" (BBR, 

 237). This one at the heart was the principal one, which after death 

 went to the sky in company with its Icheii-i, or Chemin (Sect. 89), 

 to live therewith other Familiar Spirits (RoP, 484), and change into 

 a young and new body (BBR, 237). They do not regard the spirit 

 as being so immaterial as it is invisible. As to then' other Spirits 

 which have nothing to do with the heart, they believe that some go 

 after death to make theh home on the seashore, and that it is they who 

 make the boats tack — these are known as Oumekou; they believe that 

 others go and live in the woods and forests — these they term Maboyas 

 (RoP, 484), or they become changed into beasts. All these Spirits 

 are of different sexes and multiply (BBR, 237). Koch-Grimbei-g (n, 

 153) makes the interesting suggestion that certain procedures con- 

 nected with some of the death festivals point to a belief m the bones 

 constituting the real and final resting-place of the Spii-it after the dis- 

 memberment (Zersetzung) of the bod}-. 



70. The possession of a Body Spirit, or spirits, was not, however, 

 the ])rerogative solely of man. but, as will be subsequently shown, 

 tiiere was a widespread belief in the association of sphits with annual 

 life. Survivals of this cult, in part or in its enthety, are still rec- 

 ognizable in the folk-stories, in certain omens and tokens, charms or 

 talismans, in the observance of certain tabus with regard to food, 

 in blood-atonement and the treatment of disease, and perhaps in the 

 application of family group-names. So also, there are similarly 

 many traces of a correspondmg association of sphits with plant-life 

 (Chap. X). 



71. The general mainland belief in a Something (singular or plural) 

 emanatuig, dismtegrating, separating, etc., from the dead body of an 

 individual, or an animal, and either remaining in the inunediate neigh- 

 borhood or pursuing various courses, hence becomes ciuite mtelligible. 

 Thus it may associate itself with some other person, to become his 

 spu-it friend and adviser as it were, or else may become intimately 

 connected with the bush, forest, fields, and trees, sometmies with 

 stones, rocks, mountains, underground caverns, and occasionally 

 with stars, clouds, lightning, with rain, river, or sea. Thus, asso- 



