nd crops are got in;
ghostly men marry ghostly women, who give birth to ghostly children. The
same old round of love and hate, of quarrelling and fighting, of battle,
murder and sudden death goes on in the shadowy realm below ground just
as in the more solid world above ground. Sorcerers are there also, and
they breed just as bad blood among the dead as among the living. All
things indeed are the same except for their shadowy unsubstantial
texture.[464]

[Sidenote: Ghosts die and turn into animals.]

But the ghosts do not live for ever in the nether world. They die the
second death and turn into animals, generally into cuscuses. In the
shape of animals they haunt the wildest, deepest, darkest glens of the
rugged mountains. No one but the owner has the right to set foot on such
haunted ground. He may even kill the ghostly animals. Any one else who
dared to disturb them in their haunts would do so at the peril of his
life. But even the owner of the land who has killed one of the ghostly
creatures is bound to appease the spirit of the dead beast. He may not
cut up the carcase at once, but must leave it for a time, perhaps for a
whole night, after laying on it presents which are intended to mollify
and soothe the injured spirit. In placing the gifts on the body he says,
"Take the gifts and leave us that which was a game animal, that we may
eat it." When the animal's ghost has appropriated the spiritual essence
of the offerings, the hunter and his family may eat the carcase. Should
one of these ghostly creatures die or be killed, its spirit turns either
into an insect or into an ant-hill. Children who would destroy such an
ant-hill or throw little darts at it, are warned by their elders not to
indulge in such sacrilegious sport. When the insect also dies, the
series of spiritual transformations is at an end.[465]

[Sidenote: Ghosts of persons eminent for good or evil in their lives are
remembered and appealed to for help long after their deaths. Prayers to
ghosts for rain, a good crop of yams, and so forth.]

The ghosts whose help is invoked by hunters and farmers are commonly the
spirits of persons who have lately died, since such spirits linger for a
time in the neighbourhood, or rather in the memory of the people. But
besides these spirits of the recent dead there are certain older ghosts
who may be regarded as permanent patrons of hunting and other
departments of life and nature, because their fame has survived long