le if
they happened to have left the body of one who was ceremonially
impure. The most terrible ghost in Babylonia was that of a woman who
had died in childbed. She was pitied and dreaded; her grief had
demented her; she was doomed to wail in the darkness; her impurity
clung to her like poison. No spirit was more prone to work evil
against mankind, and her hostility was accompanied by the most tragic
sorrow. In Northern India the Hindus, like the ancient Babylonians,
regard as a fearsome demon the ghost of a woman who died while
pregnant, or on the day of the child's birth.[92] A similar belief
prevailed in Mexico. In Europe there are many folk tales of dead
mothers who return to avenge themselves on the cruel fathers of
neglected children.

A sharp contrast is presented by the Mongolian Buriats, whose outlook
on the spirit world is less gloomy than was that of the ancient
Babylonians. According to Mr. Jeremiah Curtin, this interesting people
are wont to perform a ceremony with purpose to entice the ghost to
return to the dead body--a proceeding which is dreaded in the Scottish
Highlands.[93] The Buriats address the ghost, saying: "You shall sleep
well. Come back to your natural ashes. Take pity on your friends. It
is necessary to live a real life. Do not wander along the mountains.
Do not be like bad spirits. Return to your peaceful home.... Come back
and work for your children. How can you leave the little ones?" If it
is a mother, these words have great effect; sometimes the spirit moans
and sobs, and the Buriats tell that there have been instances of it
returning to the body.[94] In his _Arabia Deserta_[95] Doughty relates
that Arab women and children mock the cries of the owl. One explained
to him: "It is a wailful woman seeking her lost child; she has become
this forlorn bird". So do immemorial beliefs survive to our own day.

The Babylonian ghosts of unmarried men and women and of those without
offspring were also disconsolate night wanderers. Others who suffered
similar fates were the ghosts of men who died in battle far from home
and were left unburied, the ghosts of travellers who perished in the
desert and were not covered over, the ghosts of drowned men which rose
from the water, the ghosts of prisoners starved to death or executed,
the ghosts of people who died violent deaths before their appointed
time. The dead required to be cared for, to have libations poured out,
to be fed, so that they might not pro