uncultured men work out this very same distinction in their dealings with their deities. In a general way it may be held that the idea of practical acceptableness of the food or valuables presented to the deity, begins early to shade into the sentiment of divine gratification or propitiation by a reverent offering, though in itself of not much account to so mighty a divine personage. These two stages of the sacrificial idea may be fairly contrasted, the one among the Karens who offer to a demon arrack or grain or a portion of the game they kill, considering invocation of no avail without a gift,[1] the other among the negroes of Sierra Leone, who sacrifice an ox 'to make God glad very much, and do Kroomen good.'[2]
Hopeless as it may be in hundreds of accounts of sacrifice to guess whether the worshipper means to benefit or merely to gratify the deity, there are also numbers of cases in which the thought in the sacrificer's mind can scarcely be more than an idea of ceremonial homage. One of the best-marked sacrificial rites of the world is that of offering by fire or otherwise morsels or libations at meals. This ranges from the religion of the North American Indian to that of the classic Greek and the ancient Chinese, and still holds its place in peasant custom in Europe.[3] Other groups of cases pass into yet more absolute formality of reverence. See the Guinea negro passing in silence by the sacred tree or cavern, and dropping a leaf or a sea-shell as an offering to the local spirit;[4] the Talein of Burma holding up the dish at his meal to offer it to the nat, before the company fall to;[5] the Hindu holding up a little of his rice in his fingers to the height of his forehead, and offering it in
- ↑ O'Riley, in 'Journ. Ind. Archip.' vol. iv. p. 592. Bastian, 'Oestl. Asien,' vol. ii. p. 12.
- ↑ R. Clarke, 'Sierra Leone,' p. 43.
- ↑ Smith, 'Virginia,' in Pinkerton, vol. xiii. p. 41. Welcker, 'Griech. Götterlehre,' vol. ii. p. 693. Legge, 'Confucius,' p. 179. Grohmann, 'Aberglauben aus Böhmen,' p. 41, &c.
- ↑ J. L. Wilson, 'W. Afr.' p. 218; Bosman, 'Guinea,' in Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 400.
- ↑ Bastian, 'Oestl. Asien,' vol. ii. p. 387.
