them. Next they formed the notion that across the sea, or the river that flowed round the earth, the souls went in boats.
And now we find this notion by no means extinct. Hamlet says:—
(Age) hath shipped me into the land
As if I had never been such.
And there is a hymn issued by the Sunday School Union, and sung up and down the land:—
Where shall we meet beyond the river,
Where the surges cease to roll?
Where in all the bright for ever
Sorrow ne’er shall vex the soul.
Shall we meet with many dear ones
Who were torn from our embrace?
Shall we listen to their voices,
And behold them face to face?
This is old Paganism wearing a Christian mask.
The ancient Greeks put on their tombs the word Euploia, ‘Favourite voyage,’ showing the popular ideas on the subject. For this, modern Greeks substitute a pair of oars laid on the grave.
Mannhardt was quite right in saying: ‘From the afore-recorded customs and stories it appears abundantly clear that the traversing of souls across water is deeply grounded in
