Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/556

 54^ Correspondence.

troubling you with these brief references, not as accumula- tive evidence, but as examples.

Bishop Callaway (pp. 141-44) gives ample evidence, from direct native sources, of the desire of tribesmen to " recall" — renew the bond of intercourse with — the soul of the dead tribesman.^ Dr. Tylor, Primitive Culture, ii, p. 16, refers to a commensal meal between the spirits and the tribe in yearly ritual ; and on p. 40 seq. he gives Mexican, Hindoo, Chinese, and Slavonic examples.^ Dr. Codrington deals with the question of the " common participation" in the death-meal (p. 272) ; the eating of the meal by the grave {ibid.) ; and he quotes one case (p. 281) where the rite of placing the common food upon the body is transferred to that of placing the kinsman himself thereon. Could the kin-bond be expressed with more physical and primitive directness ?^

I think it is worth noting that in Dr. Codrington's account of the details of Melanesian beliefs and practices concerning the body and soul after death, there is only one mention of the cannibalistic usages Mr. Hartland quotes (except an incidental reference on p. 28.4) ; and that in this one case the rite is performed by women, who would scarcely be selected (unless with a view to their de- scendants) as recipients by this means of the dead tribes- man's good qualities. No mention of such design is here made, and the act in this case looks like a form of the primi- tive taboo, which forbids any holy thing (such, e.g., as the tribesman's blood) to fall to the ground.

The commensal meal, shared between the spirit of the dead kinsman and the survivors, seems clearly betrayed in the elapse of an hour in the Dyak rite quoted by Mr. Hartland. The Amazulu may again serve as an example of the primitive form of sacrifice, which, according to ex- press native statement, consists in leaving the offering for

^ Callaway, A/nazultt, pp. 141-44.

^ Prindtive Culture, vol. ii, pp. 36-40 seq.

2 Dr. Codrington, Melanesians, pp. 272, 281, 283-85, etc.