[208.1] Maurer, 111.
[208.2] For example, the notable case of the foundress of a new and popular religion, who was said to be haunted after the manner of Herdis, to her great annoyance and terror. But even her deluded followers felt bound to draw the line somewhere, and they seem to have drawn it at this obsession.
[209.1] Daily Chronicle, 17th February 1912.
[210.1] Among the Ngoulango or Pakhalla of the Ivory Coast a widow carries a piece of fetish wood which has the power to cause death to anyone who, attempting to approach her, is touched with it (Clozel, 363). It is probably effectual also against the ghost.
[210.2] Globus, lxxii. 22; lxxxi. 190. Compare a custom of the Minas of the Slave Coast, Frazer, J. A. I., xv. 85 note. The Kagoro of Northern Nigeria are also reported to believe in the possibility of sexual connection by ghosts with women (J. A. I., xlii. 159). Major Tremearne marks this belief as doubtful; but it accords with that of other peoples. The pungent smoke of red pepper is used in exorcisms by the Tigre of Abyssinia (Littmann, 310, 311).
[211.1] Zeits. v. Rechtsw., xxvii. 85. A widow remains four months in her hut, subject to a corresponding taboo. Among the Negroes of Surinam, before a widow or widower marries again, an offering of food and drink must be made to the ghost in order to obtain permission for the new marriage. The new spouse will be considered as belonging, even if not actually so belonging, to the family of the deceased. The widow or widower may not leave the house for three months, nor do any work (ibid., 395, 394).
[211.2] Ibid., xxv. 99 sqq.
[212.1] Zeits. v. Rechtsw., xxv. 107. The Fõ Negresses in Togoland also fear to be haunted by their deceased husbands, who may kill them, or at least drive them mad. But this is said to be only when they have neglected them during life (Anthropos, vii. 307).
[213.1] Pechuël-Loesche, 308 sqq. The ghosts of women who have died in childbed are frequently the objects of dread in areas far apart. The belief is common in the East Indian Archipelago (see Wilken, iii. 224 sqq.). Such a ghost is called by the inhabitants of the Island of Serang, in the Moluccas, Putiana. She appears after death as a great white bird, or else as a beautiful woman with fragrant clothing, who attacks pregnant women, or seduces and then with her long nails emasculates men. The most elaborate precautions are taken against her (Riedel, 112). Among the Shans of the Upper Chindwin Valley, Burma, the husband feigns madness, and undergoes a special purification (F. L., xxiii. 470).
[214.1] Bastian, San Salvador, 100. Among the Fans, further to the north, as Frazer notes (Balder, ii. 18, quoting W. L. Priklonsky in Bastian’s Allerlei aus Volks- und Menschenkunde), at the end of the mourning ceremonies the widows are purified by passing over a lighted brazier and sitting down with leaves still burning under their feet. Their heads are then shaved, and they are shared between the heirs of the deceased.