372 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II. 



mann well observes, 1 some idea of sensation is still attri- 

 buted to the corpse; he is sympathised with, and the dead 

 are still more feared than the living. It is believed the spirit 

 has left the body to wander about, and that it can now assume 

 any shape, can appear in dreams, and torment the living if no 

 honour be shown to it, so that the survivors avoid pronouncing 

 the name of the deceased, from fear that he would hear it, and 

 return. This kind of belief in immortality, which is erroneously 

 confounded with the belief in a transmigration of souls, whilst 

 it is nothing but a belief in spectres and transformation, 

 may have led to animal worship, which, however, as we have 

 already shown, is due to other causes. The worship of some 

 particular animals sometimes arises from a tradition that a 

 tribe had descended from them. The departed souls are by 

 some believed to return to the spiritual world, dwelling near 

 the gods : hence they are buried in places already consecrated 

 to the gods ; or inversely, the burial places become sacred by 

 the fact, that they contain the remains of the dead, and thus be- 

 come the chief places of worship. Such is especially the case 

 where the religious faith is fused with the belief in immor- 

 tality, when great men after their death are numbered among 

 the gods. 



Among many peoples the princes, the rich> and eminent per- 

 sons only are considered as immortal, as man is believed here- 

 after to continue to play the same part as during his lifetime. 

 The future is looked upon as a counterpart of the present : the 

 master remains a master, the slave a slave ; the common man 

 is considered too powerless to continue his existence. Such 

 men, therefore, who were pre-eminently distinguished in life, 

 and especially where distinctions in rank are well denned, be- 

 come gods after their decease, and a hero-worship becomes 

 gradually the chief element of religion, when, for instance, as in 

 Polynesia, the nobles and the priests alone claim a divine origin 

 and a relationship with the gods. The deified chiefs become 

 then confounded with the ancient gods, so that it is sometimes 

 difficult to distinguish the latter from the former. Thus Nden- 



1 " Magaz. v. merkw. Keisebescrift." xxiii, p. 47. 



