Motif
breath carries the departing soul
breath_carries_the_departing_soul
A motif of the External Soul and Life-Token family. Every row below is a tagged passage; each rests on a quote in its source text.
1 occurrences
1 traditions
comparative
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The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 1 of 2) MACAULAY. / CHAPTER II. THE PERILS OF THE SOUL. / HEINE. / CHAPTER III. KILLING THE GOD.; lines 5085-5132 confidence: high
In Nias, succession to a dying chief may be established by catching his last breath and soul in the mouth or in a bag; competitors may try to catch it, including through a bamboo tube, and if there is no son the soul may be caught in a bag attached to an image of the deceased.
The Nias, Roman, and Lancashire examples explicitly link the last or dying breath with the soul of the deceased.
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