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One of the most recurrent and universal themes in folklore related to death is that of the apparitions, the spirits of the departed that appear in this life, with their same body or in a different form, and recount their suffering<ref>The universality of the motifs included in the stories of apparitions compiled in the Basque Country reveals the coincidence of many aspects of our tales with this in compilations of folklore motifs. We will use the text of Stith THOMPSON. ''Motif-lndex of FolkLiterature. ''Bloomington & London: 1966, 2nd ed. throughout our study</ref>.
The continuity of the animist view of the world in current ethnographic descriptions are mere remnants of a fabric that was undoubtedly richer and more colourful in the past. Therefore, and as the new generations stop believing in those visitors from beyond the grave, the line will often become blurred between ghost stories and other myths or legends.
When compiling the folk narratives, and during recent surveys (1980s), numerous cases were found where those facts were confused with the work of evil demons (''parte txarrekoak'', ''gaiztokoak'', ''beste mundukoak'',...) and many of the characteristics and activities of the apparitions are very similar to those of other mythological beings (Jentils, ''Lamias'' (similar to nymphs etc.). Night time is also when most of them are active. On more than one occasion, those spirits would say the typical expression of those nocturnal numens: “''gauba gaubezkoentzat eta eguna egunezkoentzat''”, the night for the beings of the night and the day for the beings of the day.
To a certain extent, that also explains the different regard that those apparitions have in folk tales. The extent can range from the case of a witness of the apparition that accepts the fact as it was totally normally and addresses the deceased as if nothing extraordinary would have happened, to the cases where the malice and depravity of the ghost cause exacerbated fear and even result in the death of the witness.
{{DISPLAYTITLE: XXIV. APPARITIONS AND WANDERING SPIRITS. ARIMA HERRATUAK}} {{#bookTitle:Funeral Rites in the Basque Country|Ritos_funerarios_en_vasconia/en}}
