THE “ SOUL THAT FALLS ” 
animal magnetism. They were much given to hysterical 
displays. One of the reasons which was given me for 
hastening the death of moribund Bororos was a curious 
superstition that the sight of a dying person would cause 
the death of women, particularly if the dying person hap¬ 
pened to look in the direction of one woman present. The 
women believed this so firmly that occasionally, the 
Bororos asserted, women actually became ill and died 
when they saw a dead person. This, no doubt, may have 
occurred merely by suggestion. Women were never 
allowed, under ordinary circumstances, to see dead 
people. 
When dancing, the Bororos sprang on one foot and 
then on the other, always hopping about in a circle. 
Abnormalities and deformities were frequently no¬ 
ticeable among them, such as hare-lip, supernumerary 
toes and fingers, and hypertrophy of the limbs. Abnor¬ 
malities of the genitals were general, owing to tribal 
customs. 
One of the evil spirits most feared by the Bororos 
was called aroi koddo —or “soul that falls.” It was a 
spirit that came to earth solely for the purpose of 
punishing the Bororos. They said that this spirit was an 
extremely noisy one, and its approach was announced by 
terrifying sounds. 
The Bororos were frightened of comets and had 
about them superstitions similar to those of Europeans; 
that is to say, that their appearance caused illness, mis¬ 
fortune, and death. Solar and lunar eclipses, the Bororos 
stated, were merely the result of anger on the part of evil 
spirits. “ The sun or moon were making faces because 
they were angry,” was their highly astronomical explana¬ 
tion of the phenomenon. 
The Bororos had a firm belief that some of their 
ancestors lived in the sun, others in the moon; and they 
said the ancestors caused the sun to make faces when 
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