in elaborate
rituals. In customs relating to death, a controlling feature is that
sense of individual possession which has been prevalent from a time
antecedent to the rudimentary beginnings of civilization. To early man,
doubt is but a change of state; the head of the household, in his place,
be it the tumulus erected for his shelter, be it the distant land to
which his spirit has been transported, holds the same rights and is
entitled to the same privileges which on earth he enjoyed. His wives, his
slaves, his steeds, his arms, are his own,[TN-2] property, which none dare
meddle with, inasmuch as the departed, now more than heretofore, has the
power to enforce his title. In a measure, therefore, these possessions
must accompany him on his voyage, and remain with him in his new abode.
But this deprivation is too great: in the natural course of things, the
living cannot waive so much and continue to live. A part is given for the
whole; substitution takes the place of direct offering. The dead is no
more to be received among the living, bringing with him, as he does, a
claim on other lives; by many methods, by concealment, placation,
substitution, ritual exile, he must be banned to the place where only on
occasions he may be sought and consulted. One of these methods of
avoidance is the habit of making the return of the funeral procession so
intricate that the spirit may be deceived in its attempt to retrace the
route; it is perhaps a consequence of this manner of thought that even
now, in retired districts, it is held unwise for the mourners to return
on the same path by which they proceeded.

These usages change their character, inasmuch as the original intent of
ceremonial actions being forgotten, acts intended to secure more
practical ends are performed in order to correspond to supposed
obligations of decency. Such is the case with the arrangement of the
chamber of death, with the stoppage of the clock, of which traces are
found in customary usage; so it is with the inversion of garments, of
which also in our lore traces seem to linger. Different, perhaps, is the
idea underlying the covering of the mirror; indications show that the
practice was once extended to all objects in the room, which formerly
seems to have been draped with white cloth. The object appears to have
been to protect domestic objects from the contamination caused by contact
with the dead, which would protect them from subsequent employment by the