Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1894 — A Samoan Superstition. [ARTICLE]

A Samoan Superstition.

“During wars the unburied dead caused a great deal of anxiety and distress to their relatives, who imagined they could hear the spirits of the warriors constantly crying to them, ‘Cold! Cold! Oh, I am so cold!’ As it was impossible to bury the real body, they imagined the spirits assumed material shape, or could be obtained In some tangiblo form, and funeral ceremonies held over them. About dusk the friends and relatives assembled where the warrior was supposed to have fallen. Spreading a cloth on the ground, one would pray to some family god, asking to obtain quickly and without trouble the spirit of the fallen one. What ever happened to alight or crawl on the cloth was considered to be the spirit. If nothing appeared some other member of the family would pray, giving place in turn to someone else. This was continued until something would alight on the cloth. Whatever it proved to be—ant, moth or worm—was carefully wrapped up in the cloth, taken home, and buried with all the honors and ceremony due the real body of the warrior.” — [Outing.