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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: spirit-seance." Tylor, op. cit. II. 139.
The funeral ceremonies of uncultured races freshly illustrate
this crude philosophy, and receive fresh illustration from it.
On the primitive belief in the ghostly survival of persons and
objects rests the almost universal custom of sacrificing the
wives, servants, horses, and dogs of the departed chief of the
tribe, as well as of presenting at his shrine sacred offerings
of food, ornaments, weapons, and money. Among the Kayans the
slaves who are killed at their master's tomb are enjoined to
take great care of their master's ghost, to wash and shampoo
it, and to nurse it when sick. Other savages think that "all
Myths and Myth-Makers |
