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APPENDIX VIIL
On Souls going to the Moon.
On the curious belief mentioned above, p. 82, of souls going to
the moon, Mr. Tylor says, in his Primitive Culture, ii. 69, 70:
"Fourthly, in old times and new, it has come into men's minds
" to fix upon the sun and moon as abodes of departed souls. When
" we have learnt from the rude Natchez of the Mississippi and the
"Apalaches of Florida that the sun is the bright dwelling of de-
" parted chiefs and braves, and have traced like thoughts on into
" the theologies of Mexico and Pern, then we may compare these
" savage doctrines with Isaac Taylor's ingenious supposition, in his
"Physical Theory of Another Life, that the sun of each pla-
" notary system is the house of the higher and ultimate spiritual
" corporeity, in the centre of assembly to those who hove passed on
" the planets their preliminary era of corruptible organization. Or
" perhaps some may prefer the Rev. Tobias Swinden's book, pub-
" lished in the last century, and translated into French and German,
" which proved the sun to be hell, and its dark spots gatherings of
" damned souls. And when in South America the Saliva Indians
" have pointed out the moon as their paradise, where no mosquitos
" are, and the Guaycurus have shown it as the home of chiefs and
" medicine-men deceased, and the Polynesians of Tokelan, in like
" manner, have claimed it as the abode of departed kings and chiefs,
"then these pleasant fancies may be compared with that ancient
" theory mentioned by Plutarch, that hell is in the air and elysium
"in the moon; and again, with the mediaeval conception of the |
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