Birds
It is a common belief among savage tribes that the souls of the dead are conveyed to the land of the hereafter by birds. Among some West African peoples, for instance, a bird is bound to the body of the deceased and then sacrificed, so that it may carry the man's soul to the after-world. The Bagos also offer up a bird on the corpse of a deceased person for the same reason. The South Sea Islanders, again, bury their dead in coffins shaped like the bird which is to bear away their spirits, while the natives of Borneo represent Tempon-Telon's Ship of the Dead (q.v.) as having the form of a bird. The Indian tribes of North-West America have rattles shaped like ravens, with a large face painted on the breast. The probable significance is that the raven is to carry the disembodied soul to the region of the sun.