Note 173 — Chapter II · THE ANTHESTERIA. The Ritual of Ghosts and Sprites.

Since the above was written my attention has been called to Dr J. G. Frazer’s paper ‘On certain Burial Customs as illustrations of the primitive theory of the soul’ (Journal of Anthropological Institute, vol. XV. 1885-6). After a detailed examination of the burial rites and customs of the Greeks and many other peoples Mr Frazer reaches the following memorable and to me most welcome conclusion: ‘In general I think we may lay down the rule that wherever we find so-called purification by fire or water from pollution contracted by contact with the dead we may assume with much probability that the original intention was to place a physical barrier of fire or water between the living and the dead, and that the conceptions of pollution and purification are merely the fictions of a later age invented to explain the purpose of a ceremony of which the original intention was forgotten.’