Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/668

358 Formerly it was held that when a person died his ghost made itself visible to one of the townspeople on the day of death. Striebel confirms my observation of the belief that, though it may return to the town at night, the pforshei remains in the home of the dead. The ghost will not visit the town on a moonlight night, and it is said to appear only in dark places. For this reason clumps of trees are always avoided by the Eghāp, if they are out at night. Striebel, however, says that he was informed that the ghosts may also appear in the daytime.

If a man is murdered, the ghost (mizzing) will appear to the murderer in his sleep. If a woman dies, her ghost may appear to one of her children on the farm about a week after death. If it speaks the child will die. Ghosts appear to people in dreams or when they are ill, and may speak to them. When a man is very ill he may dream of the home of the dead.

As already mentioned, sometimes ghosts may appear as white people, but also sometimes as black forms having long hair on their heads. It is believed that if a ghost appears before a man in the daytime, he will immediately begin to waste away, and may die.

Ghosts are able to make themselves so small that they can go through the closed doors of a hut. Striebel says that formerly ghosts appeared in great numbers, but since the advent of the Europeans they only appear singly.

The ghosts of people who at death have left no relatives behind them are believed to worry people by causing illness, and they are also said to be able to cause all sorts of trouble in everyday life. During a time of sickness in the town these troublesome ghosts are driven away. It is believed that the old men who play on the sacred instruments (ngōng) are the only people feared by the ghosts, the operation of driving them away therefore falls to these. Three branches of a certain tree are cut down, the leaves are sprinkled with a small red fruit, and then smeared with