The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c11.s3.13

v1.c11.s3.13

From these sources, naturalism and spiritism, it is easy to imagine the development of the spirits or demons whom Wundt² classifies in five groups. Thus we have ghosts or spooks, which have no connexion with any special object, and which, therefore, have a close resemblance to the spirits of the dead; not unlike in character, though of quite different origin, are those which express the tricky or sometimes terrifying aspects of nature, abiding in the house, the air, the waters, the forest or the waste, elves or cobolds, dwarfs or giants. There are also vegetation spirits, the simplest being those animating the individual tree or plant, while in more complex cases we have spirits of the wood or the corn field or more vaguely of the life of vegetation as a whole; sometimes these spirits may be derived from souls of the dead, as the spirit which ensouls the plant growing from the grave of the dead, but more often they are nature spirits proper. Further there are spirits of heaven, of the air, the clouds, the waters, and the earth, the external vegetation demons of Wundt,³ who emphasises by this name their relation to the growth of the crops. Akin to spirits of vegetation regarded as a whole, we have spirits entrusted with the care of whole fields of activity; spirits of the hunt, of seafaring, housebuilding, commerce and industry, war, marriage, government and law. Lastly there is the vast group of spirits of disease and madness, whose origin may be traced in part to spirits of nature and in part to the souls of the dead, and even more often to the creative imagination which extends indefinitely the number of such spirits.