ow, and supposes the
shadow to depart with the sickness and death of the body, would seem
liable to be attended with some difficulties in the way of verification,
even to the dim intelligence of the savage. But the propriety of
identifying soul and breath is borne out by all primeval experience. The
breath, which really quits the body at its decease, has furnished the
chief name for the soul, not only to the Hebrew, the Sanskrit, and the
classic tongues; not only to German and English, where geist, and ghost,
according to Max Muller, have the meaning of "breath," and are akin
to such words as gas, gust, and geyser; but also to numerous barbaric
languages. Among the natives of Nicaragua and California, in Java and in
West Australia, the soul is described as the air or breeze which
passes in and out through the nostrils and mouth; and the Greenlanders,
according to Cranz, reckon two separate souls, the breath and
the shadow. "Among the Seminoles of Florida, when a woman died in
childbirth, the infant was held over her face to receive her parting
spirit, and thus acquire strength and knowledge for its future use.....
Their state of mind is kept up to this day among Tyrolese peasants, who
can still fancy a good man's soul to issue from his mouth at death like
a little white cloud." [165] It is kept up, too, in Lancashire, where a
well-known witch died a few years since; "but before she could 'shuffle
off this mortal coil' she must needs TRANSFER HER FAMILIAR SPIRIT to
some trusty successor. An intimate acquaintance from a neighbouring
township was consequently sent for in all haste, and on her arrival was
immediately closeted with her dying friend. What passed between them has
never fully transpired, but it is confidently affirmed that at the close
of the interview this associate RECEIVED THE WITCH'S LAST BREATH INTO
HER MOUTH AND WITH IT HER FAMILIAR SPIRIT. The dreaded woman thus
ceased to exist, but her powers for good or evil were transferred to her
companion; and on passing along the road from Burnley to Blackburn we
can point out a farmhouse at no great distance with whose thrifty matron
no neighbouring farmer will yet dare to quarrel." [166]

Of the theory of embodiment there will be occasion to speak further on.
At present let us not pass over the fact that the other self is not only
conceived as shadow or breath, which can at times quit the body during
life, but is also supposed to become temporarily embodied in the