invariably
considered as real events, and it could not have been otherwise, as
primitive man would have been unable to conceive the abstract idea of a
vision or fantasy. And since during dreams the body remained immobile
and quiescent, it was thought that the spirit inside the body left
it and travelled independently. Hence the reluctance often evinced
to waking a sleeper suddenly from fear lest the absent spirit might
not have time to return to the body before its awakening and hence
the man might die. Savages, not having the conception of likeness or
similarity, [122] would confuse death and sleep, because the appearance
of the body is similar in death and in sleep. Legends of the type
of Rip Van Winkle and the Sleeping Beauty, and of heroes like King
Arthur and Frederick Barbarossa lying asleep through the centuries
in some remote cave or other hiding-place, from which they will one
day issue forth to regenerate the world, perpetuate the primitive
identification of death and sleep. And the belief long prevailed that
after death the soul or spirit remained with the body in the place
where it lay, leaving the body and returning to it as the spirit was
held to do in sleep. The spirit was also thought to be able to quit
the body and enter any other body, both during life and after death;
most of the beliefs in spirit-possession and many of those about the
power of witches arise from this view. The soul or spirit was commonly
conceived of in concrete form; the Egyptians, Greeks and Hindus thought
of it as a little mannikin inside the body. After death the Hindus
often break the skull in order to allow the soul to escape. Often an
insect or a stone is thought to harbour the spirit. As shown by Sir
E. B. Tylor in _Primitive Culture_, [123] the breath, the shadow and
the pupil of the eye were sometimes held to be or to represent the
soul or spirit. Disembodied spirits are imprisoned in a tree or hole
by driving nails into the tree or ground to confine them and prevent
their exit. When a man died accidentally or a woman in childbirth and
fear was felt that their spirits might annoy or injure the living,
a stake might be driven through the body or a cairn of stones piled
over it in order to keep the ghost down and prevent it from rising
and walking. The genii of the Arabian Nights were imprisoned in
sealed bottles, and when the bottle was opened they appeared in a
cloud of vapour.

There seems every reason to suppose, as the