Motif
visible or tangible lost soul
visible_or_tangible_lost_soul
A motif of the Soul Loss and Restoration 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) CHAPTER I. THE KING OF THE WOOD. / MACAULAY. / CHAPTER II. THE PERILS OF THE SOUL. / HEINE.; lines 3423-3497 confidence: high
Melanesian example: at a neighbor's death a woman hears a moth-like fluttering, catches the supposed soul, and opens her hands above the corpse's mouth, but the corpse does not revive.
Multiple examples describe the soul in visible or graspable forms such as a fluttering moth-like thing, bone or shell splinters, a lock of hair, a miniature human, a firefly, or a bird or insect.
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