The custom of praising the dead, again, is mainly flattery, and the lamentations over them are not altogether sincere.[206] By their excessive demonstrations of grief the Andaman Islanders hope to conciliate the spirits of the departed, and to be preserved from many misfortunes which might otherwise befall them.[207] The Central Australian native fears “that, unless a sufficient amount of grief be displayed, he will be harmed by the offended Ulthana or spirit of the dead man.”[208] The Angmagsaliks on the East Coast of Greenland say that they cry and groan and perform other mourning rites “in order to prevent the dead from getting angry.”[209] But the loud wailing of mourners may also, like the shouting after a death,[210] be intended to drive away the ghost, or perhaps death itself.
[206] See Gibbs, loc. cit. p. 205 (tribes of Western Washington and North-western Oregon); Wied-Neuwied, Reise nach Brasilien, ii. 56 (Botocudos).
[207] Man, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xii. 145.
[208] Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 510.
[209] Holm, ‘Ethnologisk Skizze af Angmagsalikerne,’ in Meddelelser om Grønland, x. 107.
[210] Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. p. 506. Cf. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 432, n. 2.
Fear is certainly a very common motive for funeral and mourning rites which have been interpreted as duties to the dead. This is the case with the various methods of disposing of the corpse. Thus the custom of leaving it as food for beasts of prey[211] is, in some instances at least, deliberately practised for the purpose of preventing the ghost from walking. The Herero who accompanied Chapman said of two of their sick comrades who formed part of the company, “You must throw them away, and let the wolves eat them; then they won’t come and bother us.”[212] Cremation, also, has frequently been resorted to as a means of protecting the living from unwelcome visits of the dead, or, as the case may be, of effectually getting rid of the contagion of death.[213] The Vedic people, while burning the corpses of their dead, cried aloud, “Away, go away, O Death! injure not our sons and our men.”[214] In Northern India the corpses of all low caste people are either cremated or buried face downwards, in order to prevent the evil spirit from escaping and troubling its neighbours.[215] The Nâyars of Malabar not only believe that the collection and careful disposal of the ashes of the dead man gives peace to his spirit, but, “what is more important, the pacified spirit will not thereafter injure the living members of the Taravâd (house or family), cause miscarriage to the women, possess the men, as with an evil spirit, and so on.”[216] In Tibet a ghost which makes its presence felt in dreams or by causing deliriousness or temporary insanity is disposed of by cremation.[217] In his description of the Savage Islanders, Mr. Thomson tells us of a mother who destroyed her own daughter’s grave by fire in order to burn the spirit which was afflicting her.[218] Among the ancient Scandinavians the bodies of persons who were believed to walk after death were dug up from their graves and burned.[219] And exactly the same is done in Albania to this day.[220]
[211] For this custom see also Murdoch, in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. ix. 424 sq. (Point Barrow Eskimo); Nordenskiöld, Vegas färd kring Asien och Europa, ii. 93 (Chukchi); Andersson, Notes on Travel in South Africa, p. 234 (Ovambo).
[212] Chapman, Travels in the Interior of South Africa, ii. 282.
[213] Cf. Rohde, op. cit. p. 28 sqq. (ancient Greeks); Preuss, op. cit. p. 294.