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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: with him that he may be able to defend himself against the
hostile ghosts which will lie in ambush for him on the road to
Mbulu, seeking to kill and eat him. Sometimes the club is
afterwards removed from the grave as of no further use, since
its ghost is all that the dead man needs. In like manner, "as
the Greeks gave the dead man the obolus for Charon's toll, and
the old Prussians furnished him with spending money, to buy
refreshment on his weary journey, so to this day German
peasants bury a corpse with money in his mouth or hand," and
this is also said to be one of the regular ceremonies of an
Irish wake. Of similar purport were the funeral feasts and
Myths and Myth-Makers |
