Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

28 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99
This is, however, not the case, as will appear from my texts, there
being two important phonetic differences:
(1) The surd dental is not aspirated in '5°'ta'li whereas it is most
decidedly so in t'a^li'.
(2) In '5"'ta'li the liquid is not preceded by a dental implosion as
it is in t*a^li'.
As for the successive incarnations of the animals, according to Og.,
the only one of my informants who had ever heard of it, this was
only the case for the bears (as is indeed confirmed by Mooney's story
of the "Bear Man" (Mooney, Myths, pp. 327-329) and by several
stories collected by me); neither the deer nor any other animals, Og.
states, had the benefit of a second or of any subsequent lives after
having once been killed.
I have found evidence, moreover, that the term '5°*ta'li was also
used by the himter, referring to the particle of meat of a killed animal
which he offered to the fire to return thanks for his luck. (See p. 21.)
Finally, by several medicine men still living, '5°^ta'li is felt to mean
"the decayed thing," i. e., the offal of a piece of game. The dis-
respectful treatment extended to their bones and bowels, now, is
exactly what makes the animals so revengeful toward the neglectful
hunter.
From all this I am inclined to believe that '5°'ta'li does not mean
"after-ghost" or "secondary ghost," nor that it specifically refers to
the ghost of an animal that has been killed before its "lease of life"
had been completed. Nor did I find the term asGf'na ever used with
reference to animal ghosts.
To come to a conclusion, I think that I am entitled to adhere to
my explanation, and to my distinction between asGt"na "human
ghost" and '5"'ta'U "animal ghost."
The diseases sent by these human and by the animal ghosts are so
multifarious as to include practically the whole of known illnesses and
ailments.
Commonly, however, the human ghosts act by "spoiling the saliva"
of the victim, whereas the activity of the animal ghosts results in
troubles that are not so much of a psychopathological order. Rheumatism
and dysentery, swellings in the cheek, and violent headaches
may all be caused in different patients by one and the same animal
ghost, e. g., a deer's. On the other hand, several different kinds of
animal ghosts may all manifest their ill will and take vengeance on the
human race by inflicting one and the same disease, as rheumatism
which can be caused by the measuring worm, the rabbit, or the
buffalo.
A species of animal ghosts to which many ailments are ascribed are
the various kinds of tcsGO"'ya or insects.