raising and consulting the spirits of the dead.

This leads me to notice the ancient belief concerning the souls of the
departed. By almost all nations, Jews and Gentiles, there was a
prevailing belief that at death the souls of good men were taken
possession of by good spirits and carried to Paradise, but the souls of
wicked men were left to wander in the space between the earth and moon,
or consigned to Hades, or Unseen World. These wandering spirits were in
the habit of haunting the living, especially their relations, so that
the living were surrounded on every side by the spirits of their wicked
ancestors, who were always at hand tempting them to evil. However, there
were means by which these ghosts might be exorcised. A formula for
expelling wicked spirits is given by Ovid in Book V. of the Fasti:--

"In the dread silence of midnight, upon the eighth day of May, the
votary rises from his couch barefooted, and snapping his fingers as a
sure preventative against meeting any ghost during his subsequent
operations, thrice washing his hands in spring water, he places nine
black beans in his mouth, and walks out. These he throws behind him one
by one, carefully guarding against the least glance backwards, and at
each cast he says, 'With these beans I ransom myself and mine.' The
spirits of his ancestors follow him and gather the beans as they fall.
Then, performing another ablution as he enters his house, he clashes
cymbals of brass, or rather some household utensil of that metal,
entreating the spirits to quit his roof. He then repeats nine times
these words, 'Avaunt ye ancestral manes.' After this he looks behind,
and is free for one year."

Some nations in addition to a personal formula for laying the ghosts of
departed relatives, had a national ritual for ghost-laying, a public