agonians believe in a country of the dead which they call Alhue
Mapu and they kill the horses of the deceased in order that their owner
may ride in Alhue Mapu.
From the beliefs of the Negritto and Malayo-Polynesian races, I glean the
following: The Fuegians believe in a superior being, and in good and evil
spirits, in dreams, omens, signs, etc. Fitzroy says he could not satisfy
himself that they had any idea of the immortality of the soul.
The Veddahs believe in the guardianship of the spirits of the dead, who
visit them in dreams and minister to them in sickness, and they have
ceremonies of invocation.
Eyra says some at least of the Australians believe in the existence and
separability of the soul.
The Tasmanians believed in a future life as a tradition of a primitive
religion, and Bonwick says they conversed with the spirits of the dead.
The New Caledonians believe that white men are the spirits of the dead,
and that they bring sickness. They believe that the soul on leaving the
body goes to the Bush, and every fifth month they have a "spirit night" or
"grand concert of spirits." The gods of the New Caledonians are their
ancestors, whose relics they keep and idolize.
The Fijians believe in a separable soul, and dying is by them described by
the same terms as sunset.
Belief in a future state among them is said by Siemann to be universal. In
Fiji heaven the inhabitants plant, live in families, fight, and so repeat
the incidents of life on earth. They believe that the spirit of men, while
still alive, may leave the body and trouble other people when asleep.
The Sandwich Islanders believe that the spirit of the departed hovers
about his former home, appears to his relatives in dreams, and they
worship an image which they believe to be in some way connected with the
departed. They regard the spirit of one of their ancient kings as a
tutelar deity, and the king and the priest were believed to be descended
from the gods.
The Tahitians believe in a separable soul which, on leaving the body, is
seized by other spirits and conducted to the state of night, where it is
by degrees eaten by the gods. A few escape this fate, while others, after
being three times eaten, become immortal.
The Tongons believe that the human soul is the more ethereal part of the
body and that it exists in Bolotoo in the form and likeness of the body
the moment after death.
The Samoans believe that the spirits of the dead have power
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