and
spirit--cannot occur naturally: it must be due to the machination of
some enemy, by violence, by poison, or by sorcery.

The spirit that has gone forth for ever is not, by quitting its bodily
tenement, deprived of power offensive and defensive. It is frequently
impelled by hostile motives to injure those yet in the flesh; and it
must, therefore, be appeased, or deceived, or driven away. This is the
end and aim of funeral rites: this is the meaning of many periodical
ceremonies in which the whole tribe takes part. For the same reason,
when the hunter slays a powerful animal, he apologizes and lays the
blame on his arrows or his spear, or on some one else. For the same
reason the woodman, when he cuts down a tree, asks permission to do so
and offers sacrifices, and he provides a green sprig to stick into the
stump as soon as the tree falls, that it may be a new home for the
spirit thus dislodged. For since the spirit is neither slain, nor
deprived of power, by destruction of the body, or by severance from the
body, it may find another to dwell in. Spirits of dead men, like other
spirits, may assume fresh bodies, new forms, and forms not necessarily
human. A favourite form is that of a snake: it was as a snake that the
spirit of Anchises appeared and accepted the offerings made by his pious
son. In their new forms the spirits of the dead are sometimes, as in
this case, kindly, at other times malicious, but always to be treated
with respect, always to be conciliated; for their power is great. They
can in their turn cause disease, misfortune, death.

Another characteristic of the mental condition I am describing must not
be omitted. Connection of thought, even though purely fortuitous, is
taken to indicate actual connection of the things represented in
thought. This connection is, of course, often founded on association of
time or place, and once formed it is not easily broken. For example, any
object once belonging to a man recalls the thought of him. The
connection between him and that object is therefore looked upon as still
existing, and he may be affected by the conduct shown towards it. This
applies with special force to such objects as articles of clothing, and
still more to footprints and to spittle, hair, nail-parings and
excrement. Injury to these with malicious intent will hurt him from whom
they are derived. In the same way a personal name is looked upon as
inseparable from its owner; and savages are frequen