These same tropes recur in American languages in the same connection.
The New England tribes called the soul _chemung_, the shadow, and in
Quiche _natub_, in Eskimo _tarnak_, express both these ideas. In Mohawk
_atonritz_, the soul, is from _atonrion_, to breathe, and other examples
to the same purpose have already been given.[235-1]
Of course no one need demand that a strict immateriality be attached to
these words. Such a colorless negative abstraction never existed for
them, neither does it for us, though we delude ourselves into believing
that it does. The soul was to them the invisible man, material as ever,
but lost to the appreciation of the senses.
Nor let any one be astonished if its unity was doubted, and several
supposed to reside in one body. This is nothing more than a somewhat
gross form of a doctrine upheld by most creeds and most philosophies. It
seems the readiest solution of certain psychological enigmas, and may,
for aught we know, be an instinct of fact.
Pages:
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388