Note 68 — LECTURE II. The Origin and Contents of Primitive Religions.

The fear of ghosts in civilised countries is the survival of a wide-spread, ancient belief in the malevolence of souls. I have found no instance of this more striking than among the Finns. They believed that the souls of the dead lie in wait for the living, in order to kill and eat them, especially their hearts and lungs, so that the slain could not live again. The ghosts did not spare their nearest relatives, and the story is told of an old man, who warned his beloved young wife not to follow his corpse to the grave, or his ghost would eat her. She disobeyed, and saved herself only by pronouncing the name of God. Cong. Internat. d’Archéologie de Moscou, Tom. ii., p. 316. In about one third of known savage tribes, the ghosts are considered kind and friendly to the survivors. See Steinmetz’s analysis in his Entwicklung der Strafe, Bd. i., s. 142, sq.