CONSTANTINE P. CAVAFY
[FRAGMENT
ON BELIEFS CONCERNING THE SOUL]
[…]le’s reach – I may yet mention the curious and well-spread belief that the souls of the dead inhabit the trunks of trees. We are told by Empedocles «There are two destinies for the souls of highest virtue: to pass either into trees, or into the bodies of lions». Tasso and Spencer dwell in their works on this doctrine, and Dante[1] places in hell a leafless wood, whose trees hold each the soul of a suicide in bondage. The superstition obtains also credit among the Dyaks of Borneo.[2]
A still more curious notion attributes to each man the possession of several souls. It is prevalent with the inhabitants of Madagascar, Greenland, and certain parts of America; and, according to Sir John Lubbock,[3] may be traced back to Greeks and Romans.
German tradition[4] betrays a degree of uncertainty as to the soul’s form. At times it is made to resemble a mouse, a weasel, a snake – at others a butterfly, a lily, a rose.