ious life, and
this assumption is confirmed by sights and sounds, chiefly during the
night, that are interpreted as the forms and utterances of wandering
souls.

+61+. Generally no occupation is assigned to these ghosts, except that
it is sometimes supposed that they seek food and warmth:[121] scraps of
food are left on the ground for them, and persons sitting around a fire
at night are afraid to venture into the dark places beyond lest they
meet them.[122] For it is a common belief that such souls are dangerous,
having both the power and the will to inflict injury.[123] It is easy to
see why they should be supposed to possess extraordinary powers.[124]
The belief in their maliciousness may have come naturally from the
social conditions of the place and time: in savage communities a man who
is stronger than his fellows is likely to treat them as his savage
instincts prompt, to seize their property or kill them; and departed
souls would naturally be credited with similar dispositions.

+62+. It is also true that the mysterious is often dreadful; even now in
civilized lands there is a general fear of a 'ghost.' Precautions are
taken by savages to drive or keep the soul away: the doors of houses
are closed, and noises are made. On the other hand, ghosts, as members
of the family or the clan, are often regarded as friendly.[125] Even
during a man's lifetime his soul may be a sort of guide and
protector--may attain, in fact, the rank of a deity;[126] and after
death it may become, as ancestor, the object of a regular cult.

+63+. Fear of ghosts has, perhaps, suggested certain methods of
disposing of the dead body, as by interring or exposing it at a distance
from the village, or burning it or throwing it into the water; other
considerations, however, as is suggested above,[127] may determine, in
whole or in part, these methods of dealing with the body.

+64+. 3. It may be considered an advance in the organization of the
future life when the soul is supposed to go to some distant place on the
earth or in the sea or in the sky.[128] This is an attempt to separate
the spheres of the living and the dead, and thus at once to define the
functions of the dead and relieve the living from the fear of them. The
land of the dead is sometimes vaguely spoken of as lying on earth, far
off in some direction not precisely defined--east, west, north, or
south--in accordance with traditions whose origin is lost in the
obscurity of the pas