In Melanesia a native doctor was once attending a patient when a large eagle hawk soared past the house and a hunter was about to shoot it when the doctor called out in alarm, "Don't fire, that is my spirit! If you kill it I shall die." He also said, "If you see a rat to-night, don't drive it away, it's my spirit, or a snake may come to-night, which will be my spirit." Apparently the doctor had the power to send his familiar in animal form for the purpose of working a cure.
At Ongek in the Gaboon a French missionary spent the night in the hut of a Fan chief. He was awakened before daylight by the rustling of dry leaves and, lighting a torch, perceived a huge black poisonous serpent, coiled and ready to strike. He was about to shoot the horrible reptile when his arm was suddenly struck up by the chief, who, extinguishing the torch, cried, "Don't fire, I beg of you. In killing the snake you would kill me. That serpent is my _elangela_. Fear nothing!" Speaking thus he seized and caressed the noisome reptile, which showed emotions of delight rather than fear or anger. Then the chief bore away his serpent and laid it in another hut, lying down beside it, after exhorting the missionary never to speak of what he had seen.[13]
From this occurrence it will easily be gathered that it is highly dangerous to kill a _tamaniu_, _nagual_, or _manitou_.
The possibility of the soul existing temporarily apart from the body is believed by most savages, and civilised races, such as the Romans, have held identical ideas. "The _nagual_," writes W. Northcote Thomas in his valuable article on Animals,[14] "is the lineal ancestor of the _genius_ of the Romans, no less than of the _guides_ of modern spiritualism." This statement gives ample food for thought.
[7] Fiske, J., "Myths and Myth-makers," 1873, p. 74.
[11] "The Uganda Protectorate," by Sir Harry Johnston, 1902, Vol. II, p. 832.
[12] "Totemism in Polynesia and Melanesia" in "Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute," 1909, Vol. XXXIX, p. 177.
[13] Frazer, "Golden Bough," "Balder the Beautiful," 1913, Vol. II, p. 200, etc.
[14] Hastings' "Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics," 1908, Vol. I.
At all periods of the world's history and in every country people have believed in the "external soul" of a man appearing in animal form. For instance, in the island of Florida the natives tell the story of an alligator which used to come out of the sea and visit the village in which the man whose ghost it was had dwelt. It was known by his name and was on friendly terms with the natives, allowing children to ride on its back.[15]