fact, is a sacrament, and in partaking of the victim the communicants eat their god. This detail is so prominent, that it has not escaped the notice even of mythologists who prefer to take an ideal view of myths and customs, to regard them as symbols in a nature-worship originally pure. Thus M. Decharme says of the bull- feast in the Dionysiac cult, "Comme le taureau est un des formes de Dionysos, c'était le corps du dieu dont se repaissaient les inities, c'était son sang dont ils s'abreuvaient dans ce banquet mystique." Now it was the peculiarity of the Bacchici who maintained these rites, that, as a rule, they abstained from the flesh of animals altogether, or at least their conduct took this shape when adopted into the Orphic discipline.[1] This ritual, therefore, has points in common with the totemistic usages which appear also to have survived into the cult of the ram-god in Egypt.[2] The conclusion suggested is that where Dionysus was adored with this sacrament of bull's flesh, he had either been developed out of, or had succeeded to, the worship of a bull-totem, and had inherited his characteristic ritual. This is rendered more plausible by the famous Elean chant, in which the god was thus addressed: "Come, hero Dionysus, come with the Graces to thy holy house by the shores of the sea; hasten with thy bull-foot." Then the chorus repeated, "Goodly bull, goodly bull."[3] M. Decharme publishes a cameo[4] in which the god is represented as a bull, with the three Graces standing
