iously for the ferry-boat. It soon hove in
sight, with the ghostly ferryman in it paddling to the beach to receive
the passenger. But when the prow grated on the pebbles, the artful
ghost, instead of stepping into it as he should have done, lunged out at
it with the stone club so forcibly that he broke the prow clean off. In
a rage the ferryman roared out to him, "I won't put you across! You and
your people shall be kangaroos." The ghost had gained his point. He
turned back from the ferry and brought to his friends as a trophy the
prow of the ghostly canoe, which is treasured in the village to this
day. I should add that the prow in question bears a suspicious
resemblance to a powder-horn which has been floating about for some time
in the water; but no doubt this resemblance is purely fortuitous and
without any deep significance.

[Sidenote: Transmigration of human souls into animals.]

From this veracious narrative we gather that sometimes the souls of the
dead, instead of going away to the spirit-land, transmigrate into the
bodies of animals. The case of the kangaroos is not singular. In the
village of Simbang Mr. Vetter knows two families, of whom the ghosts
pass at death into the carcases of crocodiles and a species of fabulous
pigs respectively. Hence members of the one family are careful not to
injure crocodiles, lest the souls of their dead should chance to be
lodged in the reptiles; and the members of the other family would be
equally careful not to hurt the fabulous pigs if ever they fell in with
them. However, the crocodile people, not to be behind their neighbours,
assert that after death their spirits can also roam about the wood as
ghosts and go to the spirit-land. In explanation they say that every
human being has two souls; one of them is his reflection on the water,
the other is his shadow on the land. No doubt it is the water-soul which
goes to the island of Siasi, while the land-soul is free to occupy the
body of a crocodile, a kangaroo, or some other animal.[405]

[Sidenote: Return of the ghosts.]

But even when the ghosts have departed to their island home, they are by
no means strictly confined to it. They can return, especially at night,
to roam about the woods and the villages, and the living are very much
afraid of them, for the ghosts delight in doing mischief. It is
especially in the first few days after a death that the ghost is an
object of terror, for he is then still loitering about the