CHAPTER XIII.
ANIMISM (continued).
Journey of the Soul to the Land of the Dead — Visits by the Living to the Regions of Departed Souls — Connexion of such legends with myths of Sunset: the Land of the Dead thus imagined as in the West — Realization of current religious ideas, whether of savage or civilized theology, in narratives of visits to the Regions of Souls — Localization of the Future Life — Distant earthly region: Earthly Paradise, Isles of the Blest — Subterranean Hades or Sheol — Sun, Moon, Stars — Heaven — Historical course of belief as to such localization — Nature of Future Life — Continuance-theory, apparently original, belongs especially to the lower races — Transitional theories — Retribution-theory, apparently derived, belongs especially to the higher races — Doctrine of Moral Retribution as developed in the higher culture — Survey of Doctrine of Future State, from savage to civilized stages — Its practical effect on the sentiment and conduct of Mankind.
The departure of the dead man's soul from the world of living men, its journey to the distant land of spirits, the life it will lead in its new home, are topics on which the lower races for the most part hold explicit doctrines. When these fall under the inspection of a modern ethnographer, he treats them as myths; often to a high degree intelligible and rational in their origin, consistent and regular in their structure, but not the less myths. Few subjects have aroused the savage poet's mind to such bold and vivid imagery as the thought of the hereafter. Yet also a survey of its details among mankind displays in the midst of variety a regular recurrence of episode which brings the ever-recurring question, how far is this correspondence due to transmission of the same thought from tribe to tribe, and how far to similar but independent development in distant lands?
From the savage state up into the midst of civilization,
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