Chapter XIX: Human Sacrifice (1)

IT still remains for us to consider some particular cases in which destruction of human life is sanctioned by custom or law.

Men are killed with a view to gratifying the desires of superhuman beings. We meet with human sacrifice in the past history of every so-called Aryan race.[1] It occurred, at least occasionally, in ancient India, and several of the modern Hindu sects practised it even in the last century.[2] There are numerous indications that it was known among the early Greeks.[3] At certain times it prevailed in the Hellenic cult of Zeus;[4] indeed, in the second century after Christ men seem still to have been sacrificed to Zeus Lycæus in Arcadia.[5] To the historic age likewise belongs the sacrifice of the three Persian prisoners of war whom Themistocles was compelled to slay before the battle of Salamis.[6] In Rome, also, human sacrifices, though {435} exceptional, were not unknown in historic times.[7] Pliny records that in the year 97 B.C. a decree forbidding such sacrifices was passed by the Roman Senate,[8] and afterwards the Emperor Hadrian found it necessary to renew this prohibition.[9] Porphyry asks, "Who does not know that to this day, in the great city of Rome, at the festival of Jupiter Latiaris, they cut the throat of a man?"[10] And Tertullian states that in North Africa, even to the proconsulship of Tiberius, infants were publicly sacrificed to Saturn.[11] Human sacrifices were offered by Celts,[12] Teutons,[13] and Slavs;[14] by the ancient Semites[15] and Egyptians;[16] by the Japanese in early days;[17] and, in the New World, by the Mayas[18] and, to a frightful extent, by the Aztecs. "Scarcely any author," says Prescott in his 'History of the Conquest of Mexico,' "pretends to estimate the yearly sacrifices throughout the empire at less than twenty thousand, and some carry the number as high as fifty thousand."[19] The same practice is imputed by Spanish writers to the Incas of Peru, and probably not without good reason.[20] Before their rule, at all events, it {436} was of frequent occurrence among the Peruvian Indians.[21] It also prevailed, or still prevails, among the Caribs[22] and some North American tribes;[23] in various South Sea islands, especially Tahiti and Fiji;[24] among certain tribes in the Malay Archipelago;[25] among several of the aboriginal tribes of India;[26] and very commonly in Africa.[27]

[Footnote 1: See Hehn, _Wanderings of Plants and Animals from their First Home_, p. 414 _sqq._]

[Footnote 2: Weber, _Indische Streifen_, i. 54 _sqq._ Wilson, 'Human Sacrifices in the Ancient Religion of India,' in _Works_, ii. 247 _sqq._ Oldenberg, _Religion des Veda_, p. 363 _sqq._ Barth, _Religions of India_, p. 57 _sqq._ Monier Williams, _Br[=a]hmanism and Hind[=u]ism_, p. 24. Hopkins, _Religions of India_, pp. 198, 363. Rájendralála Mitra, _Indo-Aryans_, ii. 69 _sqq._ Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India_, ii. 167 _sqq._ Chevers, _Manual of Medical Jurisprudence for India_, p. 396 _sqq._]

[Footnote 3: See Geusius, _Victimæ Humanæ_, _passim_; von Lasaulx, _Sühnofper der Griechen und Römer_, _passim_; Farnell, _Cults, of the Greek States_, i. 41 _sq._; Stengel, _Die griechischen Kultusaltertümer_, p. 114 _sqq._]

[Footnote 4: _Cf._ Farnell, _op. cit._ i. 93; Stengel, _op. cit._ p. 116.]

[Footnote 5: Pausanias, viii. 38. 7.]

[Footnote 6: Plutarch, _Themistocles_, 13.]

[Footnote 7: _Idem_, _Questiones Romanæ_, 83. See Landau, in _Am Ur-Quell_, iii. 1892, p. 283 _sqq._]

[Footnote 8: Pliny, _Historia naturalis_, xxx. 3.]

[Footnote 9: Porphyry, _De abstinentia ab esu animalium_, ii. 56.]

[Footnote 10: _Ibid._ ii. 56.]

[Footnote 11: Tertullian, _Apologeticus_, 9 (Migne, _Patrologiæ cursus_, i. 314).]

[Footnote 12: Cæsar, _De bello gallico_, vi. 16. Tacitus, _Annales_, xiv. 30. Diodorus Siculus, _Bibliotheca_, v. 31, p. 354. Pliny, _Historia naturalis_, xxx. 4. Strabo, iv. 5, p. 198. Joyce, _Social History of Ancient Ireland_, i. 281 _sqq._]

[Footnote 13: Tacitus, _Germania_, 9. Adam of Bremen, _Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiæ pontificum_, iv. 27 (Migne, _op. cit._ cxlvi. 644). Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_, i. 44 _sqq._ Vigfusson and Powell, _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, i. 409 _sq._ Freytag, 'Riesen und Menschenopfer in unsern Sagen und Märchen,' in _Am Ur-Quell_, i. 1890, pp. 179-183, 197 _sqq._]

[Footnote 14: Mone, _Geschichte des nordischen Heidenthums_, i. 119, quoted by Frazer, _Golden Bough_, ii. 52. Krauss, in _Am Ur-Quell_, vi. 1896, p. 137 _sqq._ (Servians).]

[Footnote 15: Ghillany, _Die Menschenopfer der alten Hebräer_, _passim_. Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p. 362 _sqq._ Wellhausen, _Reste arabischen Heidentums_, p. 115 _sq._ von Kremer, _Studien zur vergleichenden Culturgeschichte_, i. 42 _sqq._ Chwolsohn, _Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus_, ii. 147 _sqq._]

[Footnote 16: Amélineau, _L'évolution des idées morales dans l'Égypte Ancienne_, p. 12.]

[Footnote 17: Griffis, _Religions of Japan_, p. 75. Lippert, _Seelencult_, p. 79.]

[Footnote 18: Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, ii. 704, 725.]

[Footnote 19: Prescott, _History of the Conquest of Mexico_, p. 38. _Cf._ Clavigero, _History of Mexico_, i. 281; Acosta, _Natural and Moral History of the Indies_, ii. 346.]

[Footnote 20: Acosta, _op. cit._ ii. 344. de Molina, 'Fables and Rites of the Yncas,' in _Narratives of the Rites and Laws of the Yncas_, pp. 55, 56, 59. According to Cieza de Leon (_Segunda parte de la Crónica del Perú_, p. 100), the practice of human sacrifice has been much exaggerated by Spanish writers, but he does not deny its existence among the Incas; nay, he gives an account of such sacrifices (_ibid._ p. 109 _sqq._). Sir Clements Markham seems to attach undue importance to the statement of Garcilasso de la Vega that human victims were never sacrificed by the Incas (_First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas_, i. 130, 131, 139 _sqq._ n. [dagger]). _Cf._ Prescott, _History of the Conquest of Peru_, p. 50 _sq._ n. 3.]

[Footnote 21: Garcilasso de la Vega, _op. cit._ i. 50, 130.]

[Footnote 22: Müller, _Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen_, p. 212 _sq._]

[Footnote 23: _Ibid._ p. 142. _sqq._ Réville, _Religions des peuples non-civilisés_, i. 249 _sq._ Dorman, _Origin of Primitive Superstitions_, p. 208 _sqq._]

[Footnote 24: Schneider, _Naturvölker_, i. 191 _sq._ Fornander, _Account of the Polynesian Race_, i. 129. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 106, 346-348, 357 (Society Islanders). Williams, _Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands_, p. 548 _sq._ (especially the Hervey Islanders and Tahitians). von Kotzebue, _Voyage of Discovery_, iii. 248 (Sandwich Islanders). Lisiansky, _Voyage round the World_, pp. 81 _sq._ (Nukahivans), 120 (Sandwich Islanders). Gill, _Myths and Songs from the South Pacific_, p. 289 _sqq._ (Mangaians). Williams and Calvert, _Fiji_, pp. 188, 195; Wilkes, _Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition_, iii. 97; Hale, _U.S. Exploring Expedition, Vol. VI. Ethnography and Philology_, p. 57 (Fijians). Codrington, _Melanesians_, p. 134 _sqq._]

[Footnote 25: Ling Roth, _Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo_, ii. 215 _sqq._ Bock, _Head-Hunters of Borneo_, p. 218 _sq._ (Dyaks).]

[Footnote 26: Woodthorpe, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxvi. 24 (Shans, &c.). Colquhoun, _Amongst the Shans_, p. 152 (Steins inhabiting the south-east of Indo-China). Lewin, _Wild Races of South-Eastern India_, p. 244 (Pankhos and Bunjogees). Godwin-Austen, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ ii. 394 (Garo hill tribes). Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_, pp. 147 (Bhúiyas), 176 (Bhúmij), 281 (Gonds), 285 _sqq._ (Kandhs). Hislop, _Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces_, p. 15 _sq._ (Gonds). Macpherson, _Memorials of Service in India_, p. 113 _sq._ Campbell, _Wild Tribes of Khondistan_, _passim_ (Kandhs).]

[Footnote 27: Schneider, _Religion der afrikanischen Naturvölker_, p. 118. Reade, _Savage Africa_, p. 52 (Dahomans, &c.). Ling Roth, _Great Benin_, p. 63 _sqq._ Ellis, _E[(w]e-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, p. 117 _sqq._ _Idem_, _Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, p. 296. _Idem_, _Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, p. 169 _sqq._ Cruickshank, _Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast_, ii. 173. Schoen and Crowther, _Expedition up the Niger_, p. 48 _sq._ (Ibos). Arnot _Garenganze_, p. 75 (Barotse). Arbousset and Daumas, _Exploratory Tour to the North-East of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope_, p. 97 (Marimos, a Bechuana tribe). Macdonald, _Africana_, i. 96 _sq._ (Eastern Central Africans). Ellis, _History of Madagascar_, i. 422; Sibree, _The Great African Island_, p. 303 (Malagasy).]

From this enumeration it appears that the practice of human sacrifice cannot be regarded as a characteristic of savage races. On the contrary, it is found much more {437} frequently among barbarians and semi-civilised peoples than among genuine savages, and at the lowest stages of culture known to us it is hardly heard of. Among some peoples the practice has been noticed to become increasingly prevalent in the course of time. In the Society Islands "human sacrifices, we are informed by the natives, are comparatively of modern institution: they were not admitted until a few generations antecedent to the discovery of the islands**";[28] and in ancient legends there seems to be certain indications that they were once prohibited in Polynesia.[29] In India human sacrifices were apparently much rarer among the Vedic people than among the Brahmanists of a later age.[30] We are told that such sacrifices were adopted by the Aztecs only in the beginning of the fourteenth century, about two hundred years before the conquest, and that, "rare at first, they became more frequent with the wider extent of their empire; till, at length, almost every festival was closed with this cruel abomination."[31] Of the Africans Mr. Winwood Reade remarks, "The more powerful the nation the grander the sacrifice."[32]

[Footnote 28: Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 106.]

[Footnote 29: Fornander, _op. cit._ i. 129.]

[Footnote 30: Wilson, _Works_, ii. 268 _sq._]

[Footnote 31: Prescott, _History of the Conquest of Mexico_, p. 36.]

[Footnote 32: Reade, _Savage Africa_, p. 52.]

Men offer up human victims to their gods because they think that the gods are gratified by such offerings. In many cases the gods are supposed to have an appetite for human flesh or blood.[33] The Fijian gods are described as "delighting in human flesh."[34] Among the Ooryahs of India the priest, when offering a human sacrifice to the war-god Manicksoro, said to the god, "The sacrifice we now offer you must eat."[35] Among the Iroquois, when an enemy was tortured at the stake, the savage executioners leaped around him crying, "To thee, Arieskoi, great spirit, we slay this victim, that thou mayest eat his flesh and be moved thereby to give us henceforth luck and {438} victory over our foes."[36] Among the ancient nations of Central America the blood and heart of the human victims offered in sacrifice were counted the peculiar portion of the gods.[37] Thus, in Mexico, the high-priest, after cutting open the victim's breast, tore forth the yet palpitating heart, offered it first to the sun, threw it then at the feet of the idol, and finally burned it; sometimes the heart was placed in the mouth of the idol with a golden spoon, and its lips were anointed with the victim's blood.[38]

[Footnote 33: See Lippert, _Seelencult_, p. 77 _sqq._; Schneider, _Naturvölker_, i. 190.]

[Footnote 34: Williams and Calvert, _op. cit._ p. 195.]

[Footnote 35: Campbell, _Wild Tribes of Khondistan_, p. 211. _Cf._ Macpherson, _Memorials of Service in India_, p. 120 (Kandhs).]

[Footnote 36: Müller, _Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen_, p. 142.]

[Footnote 37: Bancroft, _op. cit._ ii. 307, 310, 311, 707 _sqq._]

[Footnote 38: Clavigero, _op. cit._ i. 279.]

But the human victim is not always, as has been erroneously supposed,[39] intended to serve the god as a food-offering. The Tshi-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast, as Major Ellis observes, maintain that their gods require not only food, but attendants; "the ghosts of the human victims sacrificed to them are believed to pass at once into a condition of ghostly servitude to them, just as those sacrificed at the funerals of chiefs are believed to pass into a ghostly attendance."[40] Cieza de Leon mentions the prevalence of a similar belief among the ancient Peruvians. At the hill of Guanacaure, "on certain days they sacrificed men and women, to whom, before they were put to death, the priest addressed a discourse, explaining to them that they were going to serve that god who was being worshipped."[41]

[Footnote 39: Réville, _Hibbert Lectures on the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru_, p. 75 _sq._ _Idem_, _Prolegomena of the History of Religions_, p. 132. Trumbull, _Blood Covenant_, p. 189. Steinmetz, _Endokannibalismus_, p. 60, n. 1. Schrader, _Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde_, p. 603.]

[Footnote 40: Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, p. 169.]

[Footnote 41: Cieza de Leon, _Segunda parte de Crónica del Perú_, p. 109.]

Moreover, an angry god may be appeased simply by the death of him or those who aroused his anger, or of some representative of the offending community, or of somebody belonging to the kin of the offender. Among the E[(w]e-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast, "in the case of human victims the gods are not believed to devour the {439} souls; and as these souls are, by the majority of the natives, believed to proceed to Dead-land like all others, the object of human sacrifice seems to be to gratify or satiate the malignancy of the gods at the expense of chosen individuals, instead of leaving it to chance--the victims are in fact slain for the benefit of the community at large."[42] One reason why the human victims are so frequently criminals, is no doubt the intention of appeasing the god by offering up to him an individual who is hateful to him. The Sandwich Islanders "sacrifice culprits to their gods, as we sacrifice them in Europe to justice."[43] Among the Teutons the execution of a criminal was, in many cases at least, a sacrifice to the god whose peculiar cult had been offended by the crime.[44] Thus the Frisian law describes as an immolation to the god the punishment of one who violates his temple.[45] In ancient Rome the corn thief, if he was an adult, was hanged as an offering to Ceres;[46] and Ovid tells us that a priestess of Vesta who had been false to her vows of chastity was sacrificed by being buried alive in the earth, Vesta and Tellus being the same deity.[47] In consequence of the sacrilege of Menalippus and Comætho, who had polluted a temple of Artemis by their amours, the Pythian priestess ordained that the guilty pair should be sacrificed to the goddess, and that, besides, the people should every year sacrifice to her a youth and a maiden, the fairest of their sex.[48] The Hebrew _cherem_, or ban, was originally applied to malefactors and other enemies of Yahveh, and sometimes also to their possessions. "_Cherem_," says Professor Kuenen, "is properly dedication to Yahveh, which in reality amounted to destruction or annihilation. The persons who were {440} 'dedicated,' generally by a solemn vow, to Yahveh, were put to death, frequently by fire, whereby the resemblance to an ordinary burnt-offering was rendered still more apparent; their dwellings and property were also consumed by fire; their lands were left uncultivated for ever. Such punishments were very common in the ancient world. But in Israel, as elsewhere, they were at the same time religious acts."[49] The sacrifice of offenders has, in fact, survived in the Christian world, since every execution performed for the purpose of appeasing an offended and angry god may be justly called a sacrifice.[50]

[Footnote 42: Ellis, _E[(w]e-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, p. 119.]

[Footnote 43: von Kotzebue, _op. cit._ iii. 248. _Cf._ Lisiansky, _op. cit._ 120.]

[Footnote 44: von Amira, in Paul's _Grundriss der germanischen Philologie_, ii. pt. ii. 177. Brunner, _Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte_, ii. 587, 684 _sq._ Vigtusson and Powell, _op. cit._ i. 410. Gummere, _Germanic Origins_, p. 463.]

[Footnote 45: _Lex Frisionum_, Additio sapientium, 12.]

[Footnote 46: Granger, _Worship of the Romans_, p. 260.]

[Footnote 47: Ovid, _Fasti_, vi. 457 _sq._ _Cf._ Mommsen, _Römisches Strafrecht_, p. 902.]

[Footnote 48: Pausanias, vii. 19. 4.]

[Footnote 49: Kuenen, _Religion of Israel_, i. 290 _sq._]

[Footnote 50: See _supra_, p. 197 _sq._ For various instances of expiatory human sacrifice, involving vicarious atonement, see _supra_, p. 66 _sq._]

It is impossible to discover in every special case in what respect the worshippers believe the offering of a fellow-creature to be gratifying to the deity. Probably they have not always definite views on the subject themselves. They know, or believe, that on some certain occasion, they are in danger of losing their lives; they attribute this to the designs of a supernatural being; and, by sacrificing a man, they hope to gratify that being's craving for human life, and thereby avert the danger from themselves. That this principle mainly underlies the practice of human sacrifice appears from the circumstances in which such sacrifices generally occur.

Human victims are often offered in war, before a battle, or during a siege.

Cæsar wrote of the Gauls, "They who are engaged in battles and dangers, either sacrifice men as victims, or vow that they will sacrifice them . . . ; because they think that unless the life of a man be offered for the life of a man, the mind of the immortal gods cannot be rendered propitious."[51] The Lusitanians sacrificed a man and a horse at the commencement of a military enterprise.[52] Before going to war, or before the beginning of a battle, or during a siege, the Greeks offered a human victim to ensure victory.[53] When hard-pressed in battle, {441} the King of Moab sacrificed his eldest son as a burnt offering on the wall.[54] In times of great calamities, such as war, the Phenicians sacrificed some of their dearest friends, who were selected by votes for this purpose.[55] During a battle with king Gelo of Syracuse, the general Hamilcar sacrificed innumerable human victims, from dawn to sunset;[56] and when Carthage was reduced to the last extremities, the noble families were compelled to give up two hundred of their sons to be offered to Baal.[57] In Hindu scriptures and traditions success in war is promised to him who offers a man in sacrifice.[58] In Jeypore "the blood-red god of battle" is propitiated by human victims. "Thus, on the eve of a battle, or when a new fort, or even an important village is to be built, or when danger of any kind is to be averted, this sanguinary being must be propitiated with human blood."[59] In Great Benin human blood was shed in a case of common danger when an enemy was at the gate of the city.[60] The Yorubas sacrifice men in times of national need.[61] Among the E[(w]e-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast, such sacrifices "are ordinarily only made in time of war, pestilence, or great calamity."[62] The Tahitians offered human sacrifices in seasons of war, or when war was in agitation.[63]

[Footnote 51: Cæsar, _De bello gallico_, vi. 16.]

[Footnote 52: Livy, _Epitome_, 49.]

[Footnote 53: Pausanias, iv. 9. 4 _sqq._; ix. 17. 1. Plutarch, _Themistocles_, 13. _Idem_, _Aristides_, 9. _Idem_, _Pelopidas_, 21 _sq._ Lycurgus, _Oratio in Leocratem_, (ch. 24) 99. Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 15. 4. Porphyry, _De abstinentia ab esu animalium_, ii. 56. Geusius, _op. cit._ i. ch. 16 _sq._ Stengel, _op. cit._ p. 115 _sq._]

[Footnote 54: _2 Kings_, iii. 27.]

[Footnote 55: Porphyry, _op. cit._ ii. 56.]

[Footnote 56: Herodotus, vii. 167.]

[Footnote 57: Diodorus Siculus, xx. 14.]

[Footnote 58: Chevers, _op. cit._ p. 399.]

[Footnote 59: Campbell, _Wild Tribes of Khondistan_, p. 52.]

[Footnote 60: Ling Roth, _Great Benin_, p. 72.]

[Footnote 61: Ellis, _Yoruba-speaking People of the Slave Coast_, p. 296.]

[Footnote 62: _Idem_, _E[(w]e-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, p. 117.]

[Footnote 63: Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 276 _sqq._, 346.]

After a victory, captured enemies are sacrificed to the god to whose assistance the success is ascribed. This sacrifice has been represented as a thank-offering;[64] but, in many cases at least, it seems to be offered either to fulfil a vow previously made, or to induce the god to continue his favours for the future.[65] Among the Kayans of Borneo it is the custom that, when captives are brought to an enemy's country, "one should suffer death, to bring prosperity and abolish the curse of the enemy in their lands."[66]

[Footnote 64: Diodorus Siculus, xx. 65 (Carthaginians). de Molina, _loc. cit._ p. 59 (Incas); &c.]

[Footnote 65: Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples_, p. 170. Cruickshank, _op. cit._ ii. 173. Dubois, _Character, Manners, and Customs of the People of India_, p. 488. Jordanes, _De origine actibusque Getarum_, 5 (41). _Cf._ Jephthah's vow (_Judges_, xi. 30 _sqq._).]

[Footnote 66: Brook, _Ten Years in Saráwak_, ii. 304 _sq._]

Human sacrifices are offered for the purpose of stopping or preventing epidemics.

{442} The Phenicians sacrificed "some of their dearest friends," not only in war, but in times of pestilence.[67] In similar circumstances the ancient Greeks had recourse to human sacrifices.[68] In seasons of great peril, as when a pestilence was raging, the ancient Italians made a vow that they would sacrifice every living being that should be born in the following spring.[69] In West Gothland, in Sweden, the people decreed a human sacrifice to stay the _digerdöd_, or Plague, hence two beggar children, having just then come in, were buried alive.[70] In Fur, in Denmark, there is a tradition that, for the same purpose, a child was interred alive in the burial ground.[71] Among the Chukchi, in 1814, when a sudden and violent disease had broken out and carried off both men and reindeer, the Shamans, after having had recourse in vain to their usual conjurations, determined that one of the most respected chiefs must be sacrificed to appease the irritated spirits.[72] In Great Benin, "when the doctors declared a man had died owing to Ogiwo, if they think an epidemic imminent, they can tell Overami [the king] that Ogiwo vex. Then he can take a man and a woman, all the town can fire guns and beat drums. The man and woman are brought out, and the head Jujuman can make this prayer: 'Oh, Ogiwo, you are very big man; don't let any sickness come for Ado. Make all farm good, and every woman born man son.'"[73] In the same country twelve men, besides various animals, were offered yearly on the anniversary of the death of Adolo, king Overami's father. King Overami, calling his father loudly by name, spoke as follows: "Oh, Adolo, our father, look after all Ado [that is, Great Benin], don't let any sickness come to us, look after me and my people, our slaves, cows, goats, and fowls, and everything in the farms."[74]

[Footnote 67: Porphyry, _op. cit._ ii. 56.]

[Footnote 68: Geusius, _op. cit._ i. ch. 13. Stengel, _op. cit._ p. 116. Frazer, _Golden Bough_, iii. 125 _sq._]

[Footnote 69: Festus, _De verborum significatione_, 'Ver sacrum,' Müller's edition, p. 379. Nonius Marcellus, _De proprietate sermonis_, 'Versacrum,' p. 522. Servius, _In Virgilii Æneidos_, vii. 796.]

[Footnote 70: Afzelius, _Swenska Folkets Sago-Häfder_, iv. 181.]

[Footnote 71: Nyrop, _Romanske Mosaiker_, p. 69, n. 1.]

[Footnote 72: von Wrangell, _Expedition to the Polar Sea_, p. 122 _sq._]

[Footnote 73: Moor and Roupell, quoted by Read and Dalton, _Antiquities from the City of Benin_, p. 7; also by Ling Roth, _Great Benin_, p. 71 _sq._]

[Footnote 74: Moor and Roupell, quoted by Ling Roth, _op. cit._ p. 70 _sq._; also by Read and Dalton, _op. cit._ p. 6.]

The sacrifice of human victims is resorted to as a method of putting an end to a devastating famine.

{443} Instances of this practice are reported to have occurred among the ancient Greeks[75] and Phenicians.[76] In a grievous famine, after other great sacrifices, of oxen and of men, had proved unavailing, the Swedes offered up their own king Dómaldi.[77] Chinese annals tell us that there was a great drought and famine for seven years after the accession of T'ang, the noble and pious man who had overthrown the dynasty of Shang. It was then suggested at last by some one that a human victim should be offered in sacrifice to Heaven, and prayer be made for rain, to which T'ang replied, "If a man must be the victim I will be he."[78] Up to quite recent times, the priests of Lower Bengal have, in seasons of scarcity, offered up children to Siva; in the years 1865 and 1866, for instance, recourse was had to such sacrifices in order to avert famine.[79]

[Footnote 75: Pausanias, vii. 19. 3 _sq._ Diodorus Siculus, iv. 61. 1 _sqq._ Geusius, _op. cit._ i. ch. 14.]

[Footnote 76: Porphyry, _op. cit._ ii. 56.]

[Footnote 77: Snorri Sturluson, 'Ynglingasaga,' 15, in _Heimskringla_, i. 30.]

[Footnote 78: Legge, _Religions of China_, p. 54.]

[Footnote 79: Hunter, _Annals of Rural Bengal_, i. 128.]

For people subsisting on agriculture a failure of crops means starvation and death,[80] and is, consequently, attributed to the murderous designs of a superhuman being, such as the earth spirit, the morning star, the sun, or the rain-god. By sacrificing to that being a man, they hope to appease its thirst for human blood; and whilst some resort to such a sacrifice only in case of actual famine, others try to prevent famine by making the offering in advance. This I take to be the true explanation of the custom of securing good crops by means of human sacrifice, of which many instances have been produced by Dr. Frazer.[81] There are obvious links between this custom and that of the actual famine-sacrifice. Thus the ancient Peruvians sacrificed children after harvest, when they prepared to make ready the land for the next year, not every year, however, but "only when the weather was not good, and seasonable."[82] In Great Benin, "if there is too much {444} rain, then all the people would come from farm and beg Overami [the king] to make juju, and sacrifice to stop the rain. Accordingly a woman was taken, a prayer made over her, and a message saluting the rain god put in her mouth, then she was clubbed to death and put up in the execution tree so that the rain might see. . . . In the same way if there is too much sun so that there is a danger of the crops spoiling, Overami can sacrifice to the Sun God."[83] The principle of substitution admits of a considerable latitude in regard to the stage of danger at which the offering is made; the danger may be more imminent, or it may be more remote. This holds good of various kinds of human sacrifice, not only of such sacrifices as are intended to influence the crops. I am unable to subscribe to the hypothesis cautiously set forth by Dr. Frazer, that the human victim who is killed for the purpose of ensuring good crops is regarded as a representative of the corn-spirit and is slain as such. So far as I can see, Dr. Frazer has adduced no satisfactory evidence in support of his supposition; whereas a detailed examination of various cases mentioned by him in connection with it indicates that they are closely related to human sacrifices offered on other occasions, and explicable from the same principle, that of substitution.

[Footnote 80: _Cf._ Sleeman, _Rambles and Recollections_, i. 204 _sqq._:--"In India, unfavourable seasons produce much more disastrous consequences than in Europe. . . . More than three-fourths of the whole population are engaged in the cultivation of the land, and depend upon its annual returns for subsistence. . . . Tens of thousands die here of starvation, under calamities of season, which in Europe would involve little of suffering to any class."]

[Footnote 81: Frazer, _Golden Bough_, ii. 238 _sqq._]

[Footnote 82: Herrera, _op. cit._ ii. 111.]

[Footnote 83: Moor and Roupell, quoted by Read and Dalton, _op. cit._ p. 7; also by Ling Roth, _Great Benin_, p. 71.]

"The best known case of human sacrifices, systematically offered to ensure good crops," says Dr. Frazer, "is supplied by the Khonds or Kandhs." The victims, or Meriahs, are represented by our authorities[84] as being offered to propitiate the Earth goddess, Tari Pennu or Bera Pennu, but from their treatment both before and after death it appears to Dr. Frazer that the custom cannot be explained as merely a propitiatory sacrifice. The flesh and the ashes of the Meriah, he observes, were believed to possess a magic power of fertilising the land, quite independent of the indirect efficacy which they might have as an offering to secure the goodwill of the deity. For, though a part of the flesh was offered to the Earth Goddess, the rest of it {445} was buried by each householder in his fields, and the ashes of the other parts of the body were scattered over the fields, laid as paste on the granaries, or mixed with the new corn. The same intrinsic power was ascribed to the blood and tears of the Meriah, his blood causing the redness of the turmeric and his tears producing rain; and magic power as an attribute of the victim appears, also in the sovereign virtue believed to reside in anything that came from his person, as his hair or spittle. Considering further that, according to our authorities, the Meriah was regarded as "something more than mortal," or that "a species of reverence, which it is not easy to distinguish from adoration, is paid to him," Dr. Frazer concludes that he may originally have represented the Earth deity or perhaps a deity of vegetation, and that he only in later times came to be regarded rather as a victim offered to a deity than as himself an incarnate deity.[85]

[Footnote 84: Campbell, _Wild Tribes of Khondistan_. Macpherson, _Memorials of Service in India_.]

[Footnote 85: Frazer, _op. cit._ ii. 245 _sq._]

The premise on which Dr. Frazer bases his argument appears to me quite untenable. It is an arbitrary supposition that the ascription of a magical power to the Meriah "indicates that he was much more than a mere man sacrificed to propitiate a deity."[86] A sacrifice is very commonly believed to be endowed with such a power, not as an original quality, but in consequence of its contact or communion with the supernatural being to which it is offered. Just as the Meriah of the Kandhs is taken round the village, from door to door, and some pluck hair from his head, while others beg for a drop of his spittle, so, among the nomadic Arabs of Morocco, at the Muhammedan "Great Feast," a man dressed in the bloody skin of the sheep which has been sacrificed on that occasion, goes from tent to tent, and beats each tent with his stick so as to confer blessings on its inhabitants. For he is now endowed with _l-baraka del-[(]id_, "the benign virtue of the feast"; and the same power is ascribed to various parts of the sacrificed sheep, which are consequently used for magical purposes. If Dr. Frazer's way of arguing were correct we should have to conclude that the victim was originally the god himself, or a representative of the god, to whom it is now offered in sacrifice. But the absurdity of any such inference becomes apparent at once when we consider that, in Morocco, every offering to a holy person, for instance to a deceased saint, is considered to participate in its sanctity. When the saint has his feast, and animals and other presents are brought to his tomb, it is customary for his descendants--who have a right to the offerings--to distribute {446} some flesh of the slaughtered animals among their friends, thereby conferring _l-baraka_ of the saint upon those who eat it; and even candles which have been offered to the saint are given away for the same purpose, being instinct with his _baraka_. Of course, what holds good of the Arabs in Morocco does not necessarily hold good of the Kandhs of Bengal; but it should be remembered that Dr. Frazer's argument is founded on the notion that the ascription of a magic power to a victim which is offered in sacrifice to a god indicates that the victim was once regarded as a divine being or as the god himself; and the facts I have recorded certainly prove the arbitrariness of this supposition.

[Footnote 86: _Ibid._ ii. 246.]

This is by no means the only objection which may be raised against Dr. Frazer's hypothesis. In his description of the rite in question he has emphasised its connection with agriculture to a degree which is far from being justified by the accounts given by our authorities. Mr. Macpherson states that the human sacrifice to Tari Pennu was celebrated as a public oblation by tribes, branches of tribes, or villages, both at social festivals held periodically, and when special occasions demanded exceptional propitiations. It was celebrated "upon the occurrence of an extraordinary number of deaths by disease; or should very many die in childbirth; or should the flocks or herds suffer largely from disease, or from wild beasts; or should the greater crops threaten to fail"; while the occurrence of any marked calamity to the families of the chiefs, whose fortunes were regarded as the principal indication of the disposition of Tari towards their tribes, was held to be a token of wrath which could not be too speedily averted.[87] Moreover, besides these social offerings, the rite was performed by individuals to avert the wrath of Tari from themselves and their families, for instance, if a child, when watching his father's flock, was carried off by a tiger.[88] So, also, Mr. Campbell observes that the human blood was offered to the Earth goddess, "in the hope of thus obtaining abundant crops, averting calamity, and insuring general prosperity";[89] or that it was supposed "that good crops, and safety from all disease and accidents, were ensured by this slaughter."[90] According to another authority, Mr. Russell, the assembled multitude, when dancing round the victim, addressed the earth in the following words, "O God, we offer this sacrifice to you; give us good crops, seasons, and health."[91] Nor was the magic {447} virtue of the Meriah utilised solely for the benefit of the crops. According to one account, part of the flesh was buried near the village idol as an offering to the earth, and part on the boundaries of the village;[92] whilst in the invocation made by the priest, the goddess was represented as saying, "Let each man place a shred of the flesh in his fields, in his grain-store, and in his yard."[93] The ashes, again, were scattered over the fields, or "laid as paste over the houses and granaries."[94] It is also worth noticing that, among the Kandhs of Maji Deso, the offering was not at all made for the special purpose of obtaining cereal produce, "but for general prosperity, and blessings for themselves and families";[95] and that in the neighbouring principality, Chinna Kimedy, inhabited for the most part by Ooryahs, the sacrifice was not offered to the earth alone, "but to a number of deities, whose power is essential to life and happiness," especially to the god of war, the great god, and the sun god.[96] Now, whilst all these facts are in perfect agreement with the theory of substitution, they certainly do not justify the supposition that the Meriah was the representative of a deity of vegetation.

[Footnote 87: Macpherson, _op. cit._ p. 113 _sq._ See, also, _ibid._ pp. 120, 128 _sqq._]

[Footnote 88: _Ibid._ p. 113 _sq._]

[Footnote 89: Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 51.]

[Footnote 90: _Ibid._ p. 56. _Cf._ _ibid._ p. 73.]

[Footnote 91: Russell, quoted _ibid._ p. 54.]

[Footnote 92: Russell, quoted _ibid._ p. 55.]

[Footnote 93: Macpherson, _op. cit._ p. 122 _sq._]

[Footnote 94: _Ibid._ p. 128.]

[Footnote 95: Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 181.]

[Footnote 96: _Ibid._ p. 120. _Cf._ _ibid._ p. 197:--Among the Ooryahs human sacrifice is "performed on important occasions, such as going to battle, building a fort in an important village, and to avert any threatened danger."]

The same may be said about other cases mentioned by Dr. Frazer, when more closely examined. "The Indians of Guayaquil, in Ecuador," he says, "used to sacrifice human blood and the hearts of men when they sowed their fields."[97] But our authority, Cieza de Leon, adds that those Indians also offered human victims when their chiefs were sick "to appease the wrath of their gods."[98] "The Pawnees," Dr. Frazer writes, "annually sacrificed a human victim in spring when they sowed their fields. The sacrifice was believed to have been enjoined on them by the Morning Star, or by a certain bird which the Morning Star had sent to them as its messenger . . . . They thought that an omission of this sacrifice would be followed by the total failure of the crops of maize, beans, and pumpkins.[99] James, to whom Dr. Frazer refers, and other authorities say that the human sacrifice was a propitiatory offering made _to_ that star,[100] a planet which especially with the Skidi--the only section {448} of the Pawnees who offered human sacrifices--was an object of superstitious veneration.[101] Sickness, misfortune, and personal mishaps of various kinds were often spoken of as attributable to the incurred ill-will of the heavenly bodies;[102] and the object of the sacrifice to the morning star is expressly said to have been "to avert the evil influences exerted by that planet."[103] According to Mr. Dunbar, whose important[104] article dealing with the subject has escaped Dr. Frazer's notice, "the design of the bloody ordeal was to conciliate that being and secure a good crop. Hence," he continues, "it has been supposed that the morning star was regarded by them as presiding over agriculture, but this was a mistake. They sacrificed to that star because they feared it, imagining that it exerted malign influence if not well disposed. It has also been stated that the sacrifice was made annually. This, too, was an error. It was made only when special occurrences were interpreted as calling for it."[105] At the present day the Indians speak of the sacrifice as having been made to Ti-ra'-wa, the Supreme Being or the deity "who is in and of everything."[106] In the detailed account of the rite, which was given to Mr. Grinnell by an old chief who had himself witnessed it several times, it is said:--"While the smoke of the blood and the buffalo meat, and of the burning body, ascended to the sky, all the people prayed to Ti-ra'-wa, and walked by the fire and grasped handfuls of the smoke, and passed it over their bodies and over those of their children, and prayed Ti-ra'-wa to take pity on them, and to give them health, and success in war, and plenteous crops . . . . This sacrifice always seemed acceptable to Ti-ra'-wa, and when the Skidi made it they always seemed to have good fortune in war, and good crops, and they were always well."[107] According to this description, then, the human sacrifice of the Pawnees, like that of the Kandhs, was not an exclusively agricultural rite, but was performed for the purpose of averting dangers of various kinds. And this is also suggested by Mr. Dunbar's relation of the last instance of this sacrifice, which occurred in April, 1838. In the previous winter the Skidi, soon after starting on their hunt, had a successful fight with a band of Oglala Dacotahs, and fearing that the Dacotahs would retaliate by coming upon them in overwhelming force, {449} they returned for safety to their village before taking a sufficient number of buffaloes. "With little to eat, they lived miserably, lost many of their ponies from scarcity of forage, and, worst of all, one of the captives proved to have the small-pox, which rapidly spread through the band, and in the spring was communicated to the rest of the tribe. All these accumulated misfortunes the Ski'-di attributed to the anger of the morning star; and accordingly they resolved to propitiate its favour by a repetition of the sacrifice, though in direct violation of a stipulation made two years before that the sacrifice should not occur again."[108]

[Footnote 97: Frazer, _op. cit._ ii. 238.]

[Footnote 98: Cieza de Leon, _La Crónica del Perú_ [parte primera], ch. 55 (_Biblioteca de autores españoles_, xxvi. 409).]

[Footnote 99: Frazer, _op. cit._ ii. 238.]

[Footnote 100: James, _Expedition from Pittsburg to the Rocky Mountains_, i. 357. Grinnell, _Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales_, p. 357. Dunbar, 'Pawnee Indians,' in _Magazine of American History_, viii. 738.]

[Footnote 101: Dunbar, _loc. cit._ p. 738.]

[Footnote 102: _Ibid._ p. 736.]

[Footnote 103: Grinnell, _op. cit._ p. 357.]

[Footnote 104: Mr. Dunbar is "born and reared among the Pawnees, familiar with them until early manhood, a frequent visitor to the tribe in later years" (Grinnell, _op. cit._ p. 213).]

[Footnote 105: Dunbar, _loc. cit._ p. 738 _sq._]

[Footnote 106: Grinnell, _op. cit._ pp. 357, 358, xvii.]

[Footnote 107: _Ibid._ p. 367.]

[Footnote 108: Dunbar, _loc. cit._ p. 740.]

Nor is there any reason whatever to suppose that the Brahman boys whom the Gonds of India used to kidnap and keep as victims to be sacrificed on various occasions,[109] were regarded as representatives of a spirit or god. They were offered up to Bhímsen, the chief object of worship among the Gonds, represented by a piece of iron fixed in a stone or in a tree,[110] now "to sanctify a marriage, now to be wedded to the soil, and again to be given away to the evil spirit of the epidemic raging," or "on the eve of a struggle."[111]

[Footnote 109: Frazer, _op. cit._ ii. 241.]

[Footnote 110: _Panjab Notes and Queries_, § 550, vol. ii. 90.]

[Footnote 111: _Ibid._ § 721, vol. ii. 127 _sq._]

Dr. Frazer writes:--"At Lagos In Guinea it was the custom annually to impale a young girl alive soon after the spring equinox in order to secure good crops . . . . A similar sacrifice used to be annually offered at Benin."[112] But Dr. Frazer omits an important fact mentioned or alluded to by the two authorities he quotes which gives us the key to the custom, without suggesting that it has anything to do with the corn-spirit. Adams states that the young woman was impaled "to propitiate the favour of the goddess presiding over the rainy season, that she may fill the horn of plenty."[113] And M. Bouche observes, "Au Bénin, on a conservé jusqu'à présent un usage qui régnait jadis à Lagos et ailleurs: celui d'empaler une jeune fille, au commencement de la saison des pluies, afin de rendre les orichas propices aux récoltes."[114] From these statements it appears that the sacrifice was intended to influence the rain, on which the crops essentially depend. That its immediate object was to produce rain is expressly affirmed by Sir R. Burton. At Benin he saw "a young woman lashed to a scaffolding upon the summit of a tall blasted tree and being devoured by the turkey-buzzards. The people declared it to be a 'fetish,' or {450} charm for bringing rain."[115] We have previously noticed that the people of Benin also have recourse to a human sacrifice if there is too much rain, or too much sun, so that the crops are in danger of being spoiled.[116] The theory of substitution accounts for all these cases.

[Footnote 112: Frazer, _op. cit._ ii. 239.]

[Footnote 113: Adams, _Sketches taken during Ten Voyages to Africa_, p. 25.]

[Footnote 114: Bouche, _Sept ans en Afrique occidentale_, p. 132.]

[Footnote 115: Burton, _Abeokuta_, i. 19 n.*]

[Footnote 116: _Supra_, p. 443 _sq._]

The practice of offering human victims for the purpose of preventing drought and famine by producing rain is apparently not restricted to West Africa. In the beginning of their year, the ancient Mexicans sacrificed many prisoners of war and children who had been purchased for that purpose, to the gods of water, so as to induce them to give the rain necessary for the crops.[117] The Pipiles of Guatemala celebrated every year two festivals which were accompanied by human sacrifices, the one in the beginning of the rainy season, the other in the beginning of the dry season.[118] In India, among the aboriginal tribes to the south-west of Beerbhoom, Sir W. W. Hunter "heard vague reports of human sacrifices in the forests, with a view to procuring the early arrival of the rains."[119] Without venturing to express any definite opinion on a very obscure subject which has already led to so many guesses,[120] I may perhaps be justified in here calling attention to the fact that Zeus Lycæus, in whose cult human sacrifices played a prominent part, was conceived of as a god who sent the rain.[121] It appears from ancient traditions or legends that the idea of procuring rainfall by means of such sacrifices was not unfamiliar to the Greeks. A certain Molpis offered himself to Zeus Ombrios, the rain-god, in time of drought.[122] Pausanias tells us that once, when a drought had for some time afflicted Greece, messengers were sent to Delphi to inquire the cause, and to beg for a riddance of the evil. The Pythian priestess told them to propitiate Zeus, and that Aeacus should be the intercessor; and then Aeacus, by sacrifices and prayers to Panhellenian Zeus, procured rain for Greece.[123] But Diodorus adds that the drought and famine, whilst ceasing in all other parts of the country, still continued in Attica, so that the {451} Athenians once more resorted to the Oracle. The answer was now given them that they had to expiate the murder of Androgeus, and that this should be done in any way his father, Minos, required. The satisfaction demanded by the latter was, that they every nine years should send seven boys and as many girls to be devoured by the Minotaur, and that this should be done as long as the monster lived. So the **Athenians did, and the calamity ceased.[124]

[Footnote 117: Sahagun, _Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España_, i. 50. Torquemada, _Monarchia Indiana_, ii. 251. Clavigero, _op. cit._ i. 297.]

[Footnote 118: Stoll, _Ethnologie der Indianerstämme von Guatemala_, p. 46.]

[Footnote 119: Hunter, _Annals of Rural Bengal_, i. 128.]

[Footnote 120: See Immerwahr, _Die Kulte und Mythen Arkadiens_, i. 16 _sqq._ Professor Robertson Smith suggests ('Sacrifice,' in _Encyclopædia Britannica_, xxi. 136) that the human sacrifices offered to Zeus Lycæus were originally cannibal feasts of a wolf tribe.]

[Footnote 121: Pausanias, viii. 38. 4. Farnell, _op. cit._ i. 41.]

[Footnote 122: Farnell, _op. cit._ i. 42.]

[Footnote 123: Pausanias, ii. 29. 7 _sq._]

[Footnote 124: Diodorus Siculus, _op. cit._ iv. 61. 1 _sqq._]

As an instance of the close relationship which exists between human sacrifices offered for agricultural purposes and other human sacrifices, the following case may also be mentioned. According to Strachey, the Indians in some part of Virginia had a yearly sacrifice of children. These sacrifices they held so necessary that if they should omit them, they supposed their gods "would let them no deare, turkies, corne, nor fish," and, besides, "would make a great slaughter amongst them."[125]

[Footnote 125: Strachey, _History of Travaile into Virginia Britannia_, p. 95 _sq._]

Men require for their subsistence not only food, but drink. Hence when the earth fails to supply them with water, they are liable to regard it as an attempt against their lives, which can be averted only by the sacrifice of a human substitute.

In India, in former times, human victims were offered to several minor gods "whenever a newly excavated tank failed to produce sufficient water."[126] In Kâthiâwâr, for instance, if a pond had been dug and would not hold water, a man was sacrificed; and the Vadala lake in Bombay "refused to hold water till the local spirit was appeased by the sacrifice of the daughter of the village headman."[127] There is a legend that, when the bed of the Saugor lake remained dry, the builder "was told, in a dream, or by a priest, that it would continue so till he should consent to sacrifice his own daughter, then a girl, and the young lad to whom she had been affianced, to the tutelary god of the place. He accordingly built a little shrine in the centre of the valley, which was to become the bed of the lake, put the two children in, and built up the doorway. He had no sooner done so than the whole of the valley became filled with water."[128] When Colonel Campbell was rescuing Meriahs among the {452} Kandhs, it was believed by some that he was collecting victims for the purpose of sacrificing them on the plains to the water deity, because the water had disappeared from a large tank which he had constructed.[129] According to a story related by Pausanias, the district of Haliartus was originally parched and waterless, hence one of the rulers went to Delphi and inquired how the people should find water in the land. "The Pythian priestess commanded him to slay the first person he should meet on his return to Haliartus. On his arrival he was met by his son Lophis, and, without hesitation, he struck the young man with his sword. The youth had life enough left to run about, and where the blood flowed water gushed from the ground. Therefore the river is called Lophis."[130]

[Footnote 126: Rájendralála Mitra, _op. cit._ ii. 111.]

[Footnote 127: Crooke, _Popular Religion of Northern India_, ii. 174.]

[Footnote 128: Sleeman, _Rambles_, i. 129 _sq._]

[Footnote 129: Campbell, _Wild Tribes of Khondistan_, p. 129.]

[Footnote 130: Pausanias, ix. 33. 4.]

Human sacrifices are offered with a view to averting perils arising from the sea or from rivers.

When the Greeks were afflicted by stress of weather at Aulis, they were bidden to sacrifice Iphigenia, in order to lull the winds.[131] Menelaus was persecuted by the Egyptians for sacrificing two children when he was desirous of sailing away and contrary winds detained him.[132] According to an Athenian writer, the colonists who first went to Lesbos were directed by an oracle to throw a virgin into the sea, as an offering to Poseidon.[133] Sextus Pompeius cast men into the sea as an offering to Neptune.[134] Hamilcar, also, following a custom of his country, threw a company of priests into the sea, as a sacrifice to the sea god.[135] The Saxons, when they were about to leave the coast of Gaul and sail home, sacrificed the tenth part of their captives.[136] The Vikings of Scandinavia, when launching a new ship, seemed to have bound a victim to the rollers on which the vessel slipped into the sea, thus reddening the keel with sacrificial blood.[137] In 1784, at the launching of one of the Bey of Tripoli's cruisers, a black slave was led forward and fastened at the prow of the vessel.[138] The Fijians launched their canoes over the living bodies of slaves as rollers,[139] or, according to {453} another account, when a large canoe was launched, they laid hold of the first person, man or woman, whom they encountered, and carried the victim home for a feast.[140] On the deck of a new boat belonging to the most powerful chief in the group, ten or more men were slaughtered, in order that it might be washed with human blood.[141]

[Footnote 131: Aeschylus, _Agamemnon_, 215 _sq._]

[Footnote 132: Herodotus, ii. 119.]

[Footnote 133: Athenæus, _Deipnosophistæ_, xi. 15.]

[Footnote 134: Dio Cassius, _Historia Romana_, xlviii. 48.]

[Footnote 135: Diodorus Siculus, xiii. 86.]

[Footnote 136: Sidonius Apollinaris, _Epistulæ_, viii. 6. 15.]

[Footnote 137: Vigfusson and Powell, _op. cit._ i. 410; ii. 349.]

[Footnote 138: Simpson, quoted by Grant Allen, _Evolution of the Idea of God_, p. 263.]

[Footnote 139: Erskine, _Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific_, p. 249.]

[Footnote 140: Wilkes, _U.S. Exploring Expedition_, iii. 97. _Cf._ Williams and Calvert, _op. cit._ p. 175.]

[Footnote 141: Wilkes, _op. cit._ iii. 97.]