TEMPORARY EXIT OF SOUL
Many of the conceptions of the human soul formed by savage races arose
from the phenomena of everyday life. According to one of the most
popular dream theories prevalent among the lower races, the sleeper's
soul takes its exit during the hours of slumber, entering into a
thousand pursuits. Now, as it is well known by experience 'that men's
bodies do not go on these excursions, the explanation is that every
man's living self, a soul, is his phantom or image, which can go out of
his body and see, and be seen itself, in dreams.'[24] In the opinion
of the savage, therefore, dreams have always afforded a convincing
proof of the soul's separate existence, and Dr. Tylor considers that
'nothing but dreams and visions could ever have put into men's minds
such an idea as that of souls being ethereal images of bodies.'
Thus the Dayaks of Borneo believe that in the hours of sleep the soul
travels far away, and the Fijians think that the spirit of a living
man during sleep can leave the body and trouble some one else. But Mr.
E. im Thurn, in his 'Indians of Guiana' (344-346), gives some very
striking instances of this strange phase of superstitious belief:
'One morning, when it was important to me to get away from a camp
on the Essequibo River, at which I had been detained for some days
by the illness of some of my Indian companions, I found that one of
the invalids, a young Macusi Indian, though better in health, was so
enraged against me that he refused to stir, for he declared that,
with great want of consideration for his weak health, I had taken him
out during the night, and had made him haul the canoe up a series of
difficult cataracts. Nothing could persuade him that this was but a
dream, and it was some time before he was so far pacified as to throw
himself sulkily into the bottom of the canoe. At that time we were all
suffering from a great scarcity of food, and, hunger having its usual
effect in producing vivid dreams, similar events frequently occurred.
More than once the men declared in the morning that some absent men
whom they named had come during the night, and had beaten, or otherwise
maltreated them; and they insisted on much rubbing of the bruised parts
of their bodies.'[25]
Another evidence in savage culture of the soul's having its own
individuality, independently of the body, is the fact that a person
through some accident may suddenly fall into a swoon, remaining to
all outward appearance dead. When such a one, however, revives and is
restored to consciousness, the savage is wont to exclaim that he died
for a time until his soul was induced to return.
Hence Mr. Williams informs us[26] how the Fijians believe, when anyone
dies or faints, that the soul may sometimes be brought back by calling
after it; and in China, when a child is at the point of death, the
mother will go into the garden and call its name, thinking thereby to
bring back the wandering spirit. On this account divination and sorcery
are extensively employed, and certain 'wise men' profess to have a
knowledge of the mystic art of invoking souls that for some reason or
other may have deserted their earthly tenement.[27]
The Rev. W. W. Gill, in his 'Myths and Songs from the South Pacific'
(171-172), gives a curious instance of the wandering of the soul during
life. 'At Uea, one of the Loyalty Islands, it was the custom formerly,
when a person was very ill, to send for a man whose employment it was
to restore souls to forsaken bodies. The soul doctor would at once
collect his friends and assistants, to the number of twenty men, and
as many women, and start off to the place where the family of the sick
man was accustomed to bury their dead. Upon arriving there, the soul
doctor and his male companions commenced playing the nasal flutes with
which they had come provided, in order to entice back the spirit to
its old tenement. The women assisted by a low whistling, supposed to
be irresistibly attractive to exile spirits. After a time the entire
procession proceeded towards the dwelling of a sick person, flutes
playing and the women whistling all the time, leading back the truant
spirit. To prevent its possible escape, with their palms open, they
seemingly drove it along with gentle violence and coaxing. On entering
the dwelling of the patient, the vagrant spirit was ordered in loud
tones at once to enter the body of the sick man.'
In the same way, too, according to a popular superstition among rude
tribes, some favoured persons are supposed to have the faculty of
sending forth their own souls on distant journeys, and of acquiring, by
this means, information for their fellow creatures. Thus the Australian
doctor undergoes his initiation by such a journey, and those who are
not equally gifted by nature subject themselves to various ordeals,
so as to possess the supposed faculty of releasing their souls for a
time from the body. From this curious phase of superstition have arisen
a host of legendary stories, survivals of which are not confined to
uncivilised communities, but are found among the folk-tales of most
countries. Mr. Baring Gould,[28] for instance, quotes a Scandinavian
story in which the Norse Chief Ingimund shut up three Finns in a hut
for three nights so that their souls might make an expedition to
Iceland, and bring back information of the nature of the country where
he was eventually to settle. Accordingly their bodies soon became
rigid, they dismissed their souls on the errand, and on awakening after
three days, they gave Ingimund an elaborate description of the country
in question. We may compare this phase of belief with that which is
commonly known in this country as second sight.[29]
Among the Hervey Islanders, Mr. Gill says: 'The philosophy of sneezing
is that the spirit having gone travelling about--perchance on a visit
to the homes or burying-places of its ancestors--its return to the body
is naturally attended with some difficulty and excitement, occasionally
a tingling and enlivening sensation all over the body. Hence the
various customary remarks addressed to the returned spirit in different
islands. At Rarotonga, when a person sneezes, the bystanders exclaim,
as though addressing a spirit, "Ha! you have come back."'
Then there is the widespread Animistic belief, in accordance with which
each man has several souls;--some lower races treating the breath,
the dream ghost, and other appearances as being separate souls. This
notion seems to have originated in the pulsation of the heart and
arteries, which rude tribes regard as indications of independent life.
Thus this fancy is met with in various parts of America and exists
also in Madagascar. It prevails in Greenland, and the Fijians affirm
that each man has two souls. This belief, too, is very old, evidences
of its existence being clearly traceable among the ancient Greeks and
Romans.[30] Indeed, classic literature affords ample proof of how
the beliefs of modern savages are in many cases survivals of similar
notions held in olden times by nations that had made considerable
progress in civilisation.
FOOTNOTES:
[24] Tylor's _Anthropology_, 1881, p. 343.
[25] See further instances in Tylor's _Primitive Culture_, i. pp. 440,
441.
[26] _Fiji and the Fijians_, i. p. 242.
[27] See Sir John Lubbock's _Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive
Condition of Man_, 1870, p. 141.
[28] _Werewolves_, p. 29.
[29] See Chapter on Second Sight.
[30] See Tylor's _Anthropology_, p. 345; and Sir John Lubbock's _Origin
of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man_, p. 141; and H.
Spencer's _Principles of Sociology_, 1885, i. p. 777.