" If a
hawk is well treated in captivity and prayed to after this fashion
when he is about to be killed, he will surely send help to the
hunter.
Thus the Aino hopes to profit in various ways by slaughtering the
creatures, which, nevertheless, he treats as divine. He expects them
to carry messages for him to their kindred or to the gods in the
upper world; he hopes to partake of their virtues by swallowing
parts of their bodies or in other ways; and apparently he looks
forward to their bodily resurrection in this world, which will
enable him again to catch and kill them, and again to reap all the
benefits which he has already derived from their slaughter. For in
the prayers addressed to the worshipful bear and the worshipful
eagle before they are knocked on the head the creatures are invited
to come again, which seems clearly to point to a faith in their
future resurrection. If any doubt could exist on this head, it would
be dispelled by the evidence of Mr. Batchelor, who tells us that the
Aino "are firmly convinced that the spirits of birds and animals
killed in hunting or offered in sacrifice come and live again upon
the earth clothed with a body; and they believe, further, that they
appear here for the special benefit of men, particularly Ainu
hunters.
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