as they may be called, usually work by the aid of friendly sky-spirits. If the soul-substance has been taken by a sky-being, the soul-substance of the leech leaves his or her body and visits the sky in the company of the friendly spirit in order to demand from the god the soul-substance of the patient.
When the soul-substance leaves the body, it may assume the form of an animal, and in this state may devour the soul-substance of another person who dies in consequence; while if the animal in which the soul-substance is temporarily embodied is killed its proper host will also die.
In all this there is nothing to distinguish the Indonesian soul-substance from the “soul” of many other peoples. I have now to consider a property of soul-substance which justifies the name applied to it. Soul-substance is believed to permeate the whole body and continues to reside in, or adhere to, any part separated from the rest, especially in hair, nails, teeth and the various secretions and excretions of the body. Since the sweat soaks into, or adheres to, clothes or other objects which have been in contact with the body, the soul-substance of a person can reside in, or adhere to, these objects. Certain parts of the body are held to be rich in soul-substance, the head, blood, bowels and liver being especially fortunate in this respect.
Animals, plants and inanimate objects also possess soul-substance generally in the form of a vague impersonal principle, but in some domestic animals and food plants it takes the more personal form associated with man. Dogs, buffaloes and oxen are so favoured among animals; rice and the coconut among plants. The consumption of anything possessing this form of soul-substance enables a man to add to his own store of the vital principle.
It is sometimes believed in Indonesia that the soul-substance is embodied in the shadow, but in this case it may be regarded as a “spurious” form of soul-substance. If a person’s shadow falls on food, this should not be eaten
