The Ghost World

The supposed escape of the soul from the mouth at death gave rise to the idea that the vital principle might be transferred from one person to another; and, among the Seminoles of Florida, when a woman died in childbirth, the infant was held over her face to receive her parting spuit. Algonquin women, desirous of becoming mothers, flocked to the bed of those about tD die, in the hope that they might receive the last breath as it passed from the body ; and to this day the Tyrolese peasant st...