Church catechumens were also accustomed to fast before baptism.[1]
In the case of a sacrifice it is considered necessary not only that he who offers it, but that the victim also, should be free from pollution. In ancient Egypt a sacrificial animal had to be perfectly clean.[2] According to Hindu notions the gods enjoy pure sacrifices only.[3] In the Kalika-Purana, a work supposed to have been written under the direction of Siva, it is said that if a man is offered he must be free from corporal defect and unstained with great crimes, and that if an animal is offered it must have exceeded its third year and be without blemish or disease; and in no case must the victim be a woman or a she animal, because, as it seems, females are regarded as naturally unclean.[4] According to the religious law of the Hebrews, no leaven or honey should be used in connection with vegetable offerings, on the ground that these articles have the effect of producing fermentation and tend to acidify and spoil anything with which they are mixed;[5] and the animal which was intended for sacrifice should be absolutely free from blemish[6] and at least eight days old,[7] that is, untainted with the impurity of birth. Quite in harmony with these prescriptions is the notion that human or animal victims have to abstain from food for some time before they are offered up. Among the Kandhs the man who was destined to be sacrificed was kept fasting from the preceding evening, but on the day of the sacrifice he was refreshed with a little milk and palm-sago; and before he was led forth from the village in solemn procession he
- ↑ Justin Martyr, Apologia I. pro Christianis, 6i (Migne, op. cit. Ser. Graeca, vi. 420). St. Augustine, De fide et operibus, vi. 8 (Migne, xl. 202).
- ↑ Herodotus, ii. 38.
- ↑ Baudhâyana., i. 6. 13. i sq.
- ↑ Dubois, Description of the Character, etc. of the People of India (1817), p. 491.
- ↑ Keil, Manual of Biblical Archæology, i. 262.
- ↑ Leviticus, xxii. 19 sqq.
- ↑ Ibid. xxii. 27.
