Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 22.djvu/349

 FRACHTENBERG] ESCHATOLOGY OF THE QUILEUTE 337

however, for the ghost disappeared as soon as he became aware of the intruder.

The Quileute are aware of the fact that the shadow of a person is caused by the sun. A majority of my informants claimed that it has no connection whatsoever with any of the souls; one, however, ventured the suggestion that it may in some way be related to the outer soul.

The general theory regarding death is that it was originated by Raven, and the story told of its origin differs very little from similar tales obtained among the other Indian tribes of this region. The Quileute make no distinction between natural and unnatural causes of death; by this I mean between death caused, for example, by the infliction of a wound and between death caused by the occult powers of some malicious shaman. A person simply dies, because his soul has left him, the causes which brought about this departure being immaterial.

THE COUNTRY OF THE SOULS

Having discussed the Quileute beliefs regarding the composition of a human being, we shall now proceed to a description of the Country of the Souls and of the form of life pursued by these souls after their dissociation from the body of their owners.

All souls, whether, they belong to male or female beings, to good or bad people, go to the same place and traverse the same trail; excepting the souls of infants. These have a country of their own, which will be described later on.

The dwelling place of the souls is called the Country of the Ghosts and is situated way under the ground. The place and the trail leading to it have often been described by shamans who, accompanied by their guardian-spirits, used to go down there in order to bring back the souls of some of their patients. The journey could be made only by such shamans who had special guardian-spirits for that purpose. These guardians were usually dwarfs between one and two feet tall who, upon the death of one master, came back from the underworld and chose a different owner imparting to him the powers possessed by their previous master.

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