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Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

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oIbrechts] the swimmer MANUSCRIFl^ 27<br />

"Most diseases are ascribed to the influence of ghosts, iisnally the<br />

revengeful ghosts of slain animals. But there are two classes of these<br />

ghosts, the 'amsgi'na' (singular 'asgi'na') and the '""tali" (the 6"-<br />

bcing an almost inaudible grunt), and it was only after long inquiry<br />

that it was possible to learn the distinction between them. It is held<br />

by the shaman that an animal killed by the hunter or otherwise is<br />

again revived in the same form, and enters upon a now lease of life,<br />

to be again killed, or to die naturally, as the case may be. This may<br />

recur an indefinite munber of times, probably four or seven, the<br />

shamans questioned not being able to state. At the final death, the<br />

animal ceases to exist in the body, and its ghost goes to join its com-<br />

rades in Usiihi'yi, the night land. One doctor (Ay

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