Ghosts

Souls or spirits of the dead imagined as wandering among living people. A species of apparition of which the reality is much questioned. The belief in ghosts and in their appearance to the senses is however extremely widespread and found in all levels of culture, being characteristic of the savage mind and common in the higher civilizations. The question as to the reality of so-called ghostly apparitions becomes simply one of evidence, and while the weight of the latter is overwhelmingly against the ghosts, it cannot be said to be definitely conclusive, and there still remains a considerable number of intelligent investigators who give in their adherence to a belief in the po ibility of at least supernormal, subjective apparitions of dead individuals, if not in the objective reality of such appearances. Ghost Dance. The Me iah Nivoka of the Piutes in Nevada taught his tribe the new religion in 1889, which seeks peace and abandons old ideas. The dance is at night, in full costume, moving in a circle with joined hands and singing of happy days, but not of war. Under hypnotic influences, they communicate with the spirit world. It has been extended to most of the tribes.