Note 791 — Chapter XI · ANIMISM. (continued 2)
Reading edition
For some cases in which horror or abnegation are assigned as motives for abandonment of the dead man’s property, see Humboldt and Bonpland, vol. v. p. 626; Dalton in ‘Journ. As. Soc. Bengal,’ 1866, part ii. p. 191, &c.; Earl, ‘Papuans,’ p. 108; Callaway, ‘Rel. of Amazulu,’ p. 13; Egede, ‘Greenland,’ p. 151; Cranz, p. 301; Loskiel, ‘Ind. N. A.’ part i. p. 64, but see p. 76. The destruction or abandonment of the whole property of the dead may plausibly, whether justly or not, be explained by horror or abnegation; but these motives do not generally apply to cases where only part of the property is sacrificed, or new objects are provided expressly, and here the service of the dead seems the reasonable motive. Thus, at the funeral of a Garo girl, earthen vessels were broken as they were thrown in above the buried ashes. ‘They said, the spirit of the girl would not benefit by them if they were given unbroken, but for her the fragments would unite again.’ (Dalton, ‘Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal,’ p. 67.) The mere fact of breaking or destruction of objects at funerals does not carry its own explanation, for it is equally applicable to sentimental abandonment and to practical transmission of the spirit of the object, as a man is killed to liberate his soul. For good cases of the breaking of vessels and utensils given to the dead, see ‘Journ. Ind. Archip.’ vol. i. p. 325 (Mintira); Grey, ‘Australia,’ vol. i. p. 322; G. F. Moore, ‘Vocab. W. Australia,’ p. 13 (Australians); Markham in ‘Tr. Eth. Soc.’ vol. iii. p. 188 (Ticunas); St. John, vol. i. p. 68 (Dayaks); Ellis, ‘Madagascar,’ vol. i. p. 254; Schoolcraft, ‘Indian Tribes,’ part i. p. 84 (Appalachicola); D. Wilson, ‘Prehistoric Man,’ vol. ii. p. 196 (N. A. I. and ancient graves in England). Cases of formal sacrifice where objects are offered to the dead and taken away again, are generally doubtful as to motive; see Spix and Martius, vol. i. p. 383; Martius, vol. i. p. 485 (Brazilian Tribes); Moffat, ‘S. Africa,’ p. 308 (Bechuanas); ‘Journ. Ind. Archip.’ vol. iii. p. 149 (Kayans).