But hamstringing the carcase is not the only measure which
the prudent savage adopts for the sake of disabling the ghost of his
victim. In old days, when the Aino went out hunting and killed a fox
first, they took care to tie its mouth up tightly in order to
prevent the ghost of the animal from sallying forth and warning its
fellows against the approach of the hunter. The Gilyaks of the Amoor
River put out the eyes of the seals they have killed, lest the
ghosts of the slain animals should know their slayers and avenge
their death by spoiling the seal-hunt.
Besides the animals which primitive man dreads for their strength
and ferocity, and those which he reveres on account of the benefits
which he expects from them, there is another class of creatures
which he sometimes deems it necessary to conciliate by worship and
sacrifice. These are the vermin that infest his crops and his
cattle. To rid himself of these deadly foes the farmer has recourse
to many superstitious devices, of which, though some are meant to
destroy or intimidate the vermin, others aim at propitiating them
and persuading them by fair means to spare the fruits of the earth
and the herds.
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