GHOSTS (AS. grist, OHG. geist, Ger. Geist; ultimately connected with Car. poet. wound, Skt. hulas, wrath). The spirits of the dead as mani fested to the living. The belief in ghosts is one of the earliest of all religious phenomena, and forms the foundation of many concepts and practices in cults from the most primitive faiths to the most highly spiritual. It is found in one form or another at all ages and among all peoples. To such an extent does belief in ghosts prevail, that one school of comparative religion (see RELIGIONS, ComcAnAnvE), of whom Herbert Spencer and Julius Lippert are the chief repre sentatives, has sought to find the origin of all religion in ghost-cults. This view must be re garded, however, as an erroneous, because one sided. theory, but the importance of ghost worship as a religious factor cannot be denied, and it is certainly one of the main sources of religious belief. Its chief development is found in the widespread existence of ancestor-worship, as will be explained. It is also the foundation of all eschatology (q.v.), or belief in future life. The notion of survival of a certain mys terious part of man, which may be called con veniently the soul, is found at a very early stage in religious- development. Whether this belief is, and always has been, universal is a problem which may be insoluble. While many observers deny the existence of ghost-belief as well as of all religious concepts among certain extremely primitive peoples, as the Andaman islanders, a prudent skepticism renders one distrustful of their conclusions, for it may be stated as a general fact that religious beliefs are particu larly liable to concealment and to misinterpre tation. This reticence may be due either to lack of method or of misunderstanding on the part of the investigator, or to a fear entertained by the individual questioned lest the knowledge gained from him may be used to his hurt.
The ghost-concept in its most primitive form seems to be developed as follows: The phenome non of dreams is one of the starting-points. According to the reasoning of the primitive mind, the self, while the body is unconscious and inert, wanders to places familiar or even unknown, experiences pleasure and pain, converses with friends perhaps dead, and performs other things which have no connection with the body. It is therefore a dangerous thing, in the belief of many savage tribes, to wake a sleeper suddenly, lest his soul may not return in time. Among some peoples the soul is even supposed to assume a visible shape, as that of a mouse, which comes from the sleeper's mouth. From sleep and dreams the savage proceeds by analogy to death. To him the distinction between slumber and death is one of degree rather than of kind, and it is well known how universal is the belief that sleep and death are near akin. As in slumber the soul left the body for a time, but returned to it, so in the long sleep, as the primitive mind regards it, of death, the soul is supposed to remain near the body. This belief, for instance, is found even in such developed faiths as Parsiism and Mohammedanism, while other religions, as the ancient Egyptian, teach separate phases of the soul, one of which, like the Egyptian ka, remains near the corpse. As it is obviously impossible to keep a corpse from dissolution, and as the progress of decay renders the body more and more uninhabitable for the spirit which has left it, the soul, or the ghost as it may now be called, becomes a source of much anxiety to the kinsmen and other friends of the dead. It must be borne in mind,
as has been stated in the article on demonology (q.v.), that in primitive religion the element of terror is one of the most important factors, and at first exercises a far greater influence than hope. The ghost is, then, more terrible than was the man whose body it had animated. It is no longer limited by bodily restrictions, it can traverse space with infinite speed, and may be invisible. Fortunately, and somewhat curi ously, the ghost, like demons generally, is rather stupid, and is also bound by certain limitations. Upon such an apparently flimsy foundation, which is, however, logical to the primitive man, is built a complicated system of mor tuary customs (q.v.), and the concept of im mortality. The ghost, which, as has• been said, delights to hover around its earthly home, is not a cheerful companion to the living, and must therefore be kept away. This io accom plished by various methods, as by building a new hut for the survivors, or, more easily, by carrying the corpse out by a hole broken in the side of the dwelling, which is subsequently walled up. The ghost is then unable to find its way back, and the house is safe from its invasion. The superstition here noted still sur vives. The so-called haunted houses and haunt ed rooms are cases in point, and it is important to note that it is the malignant ghosts, chiefly those who have been involved in murder or other evil acts, which especially linger around the scene of their earthly activities. The beneficent ghost plays but a small part as compared with the maleficent one. To avert the influence of maleficent ghosts, who have already been con sidered under the title demonology (q.v.), va rious forms of sacrifice and magic are employed. These ceremonies have as their primary ob ject the satisfaction of the ghost's wants. These needs are conceived as being practically the same as they are on earth. Thus the bow and arrows are laid with the warrior, a woman's jewelry is buried with her, and a child's toys rest beside its body. It was also common in many places, notably in Dahomey and Polynesia, to sacrifice slaves to attend their master in the spirit world, while among the ancient Germans horses and even wives (as in the Indian suttee) were often slain at the funeral pyre. It is also probable that to the wish to appease ghosts many of the elaborate mourning customs of primitive peoples may be traced. Under this category come such acts as shaving the hair, cutting the flesh, fasting, neglect of the toilet, use of un becoming clothing, and the like. It is, of course, true that at a comparatively early time the development of civilization rendered mourning for the dei.d an act of affection and not of fear; but it is hard to believe that the savage who put to death the aged members of his tribe was moved by any high ideals in the be ginning of mortuary customs. In line with mourning are the offerings of food, drink, cloth ing, and, as in China, of money to the deceased.