[106] Preuss, op. cit. p. 301.
[107] Dall, op. cit. p. 382.
[108] Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 64.
[109] Ayrault, Des procez faicts au cadaver, p. 5 sqq. Trummer, Vorträge über Tortur, &c. i. 455 sqq. Supra, [ii. 254].
From this survey of facts we shall now pass to a consideration of the causes from which the duties to the dead have sprung. In the first place, there can be no doubt that these duties to a considerable extent are based upon the feeling of sympathetic resentment, in the same way as is the case with duties to living persons. Death does not entirely extinguish the affection which was felt for a person whilst he was alive. The rites and customs connected with a death are very largely similar to or identical with natural expressions of grief, and in spite of their ceremonial character it is impossible to believe that they are altogether counterfeit. We are told by trustworthy eye-witnesses that, although the self-inflicted pain and the loud lamentations which form part of a funeral among the Australian blacks are not to be taken as a measure of the grief actually felt, this expression of despair “is not all artificial or professional”;[110] and Mr. Man believes that among the Andaman Islanders “in the majority of cases the display of grief is thoroughly sincere.”[111] But the dead also inspire other feelings than sympathy and sorrow, and the duties towards them have consequently a complex origin.
[110] Fraser, Aborigines of New South Wales, p. 44. Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 510 sq.
[111] Man, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xii. 145.
The souls of the dead are not generally supposed to lead a merely passive existence. They are conceived as capable of acting upon the living, of conferring upon them benefits, or at all events of inflicting upon them harm. Death has in some respects enhanced their powers. They know what is going on upon earth, what those whom they have left behind are doing. Their power of acting, also, is greater than that which they possessed when they were tied to the flesh. They are raised to a higher sphere of influence; magic properties are ascribed even to their corpses. Their character may remain on the whole unchanged, and so, too, their affection for their surviving friends. Hence they often become guardians of their descendants. Among the Amazulu the head of each house is worshipped by his children; remembering his kindness to them while he was living, they say, “He will still treat us in the same way now he is dead.”[112] The Herero invoke the blessings of their deceased friends or relatives, praying for success against their enemies, an abundance of cattle, numerous wives, and prosperity in their undertakings.[113] On the West African Slave Coast the head of a family, after death, often becomes its protector, and is sometimes regarded as the guardian of a whole community or village.[114] The Mpongwe teach the child “to look up to the parent not only as its earthly protector, but as a friend in the spirit-land.”[115] The Gournditch-mara in Australia believed that “the spirit of the deceased father or grandfather occasionally visited the male descendant in dreams, and imparted to him charms (songs) against disease or against witchcraft.”[116] The Veddah of Ceylon invokes the spirits of his departed relatives “as sympathetic and kindred, though higher powers than man, to direct him to a life pleasing to the gods, through which he may gain their protection or favour.”[117] The Nayādis of Malabar, on certain ceremonial occasions, offer solemn prayers that the souls of the departed may protect them from the ravages of wild beasts and snakes.[118] The Vedic people called upon the aid of their dead:—“O Fathers, may the sky-people grant us life; may we follow the course of the living.”[119] So also the Zoroastrian Fravashis, who corresponded to the Vedic “Fathers,” helped their own kindred, borough, town, or country.[120] Aeschylus, in his ‘Eumenides,’ represents Orestes as saying, “My father will send me aid from the tomb.”[121] The Lar Familiaris, the spirit guardian of the Roman family, was undoubtedly the spirit of a deceased ancestor.[122] The old Slavonians believed that the souls of fathers watched over their children and their children’s children. In Galicia the people still think that their hearths are haunted by the souls of the dead, who make themselves useful to the family; and among the Czechs, it is a common belief that departed ancestors look after the fields and herds of their descendants and assist them in hunting and fishing.[123]
[112] Callaway, Religious System of the Amazulu, p. 144 sq.
[113] Andersson, Lake Ngami, p. 222.