Page:Frazer (1890) The Golden Bough (IA goldenboughstudy01fraz).djvu/145

II The heaviest soul ever given out weighs about ten grammes. The length of a man’s life is proportioned to the length of his soul; children who die young had short souls. Sometimes, however, as we shall see, the human soul is conceived not in human but in animal form.

The soul is commonly supposed to escape by the natural openings of the body, especially the mouth and nostrils. Hence in Celebes they sometimes fasten fish-hooks to a sick man’s nose, navel, and feet, so that if his soul should try to escape it may be hooked and held fast. One of the “properties” of a Haida medicine-man is a hollow bone, in which he bottles up departing souls, and so restores them to their owners. The Marquesans used to hold the mouth and nose of a dying man, in order to keep him in life, by preventing his soul from escaping. When any one yawns in their presence the Hindus always snap their thumbs, believing that this will hinder the soul from issuing through the open mouth. The Itonamas in South America seal up the eyes, nose, and mouth of a dying person, in case his ghost should get out and carry off other people. In Southern Celebes, to prevent the escape of a woman’s soul at childbirth, the nurse ties a band as tightly as possible round the body of the expectant mother. And lest the soul of the babe should