It may be noted, however, that lac bangles are not always worn
by the bride at a wedding, the custom being unknown in some
localities. Moreover, it appears that glass was known to the Hindus
at a period prior to the Muhammadan invasions, though bangles may not
have been made from it. Another reason for the use of lac bangles
on the occasions noticed is that lac, as already seen, represents
blood. Though blood itself is now repugnant to the Hindus, yet red
is pre-eminently their lucky colour, being worn at weddings and
generally preferred. It is suggested in the _Bombay Gazetteer_ [85]
that blood was lucky as having been the first food of primitive man,
who learnt to suck the blood of animals before he ate their flesh. But
it does not seem necessary to go back quite so far as this. The
earliest form of sacrifice, as shown by Professor Robertson Smith,
[86] was that in which the community of kinsmen ate together the flesh
of their divine or totem animal god and drank its blood. When the god
became separated from the animal and was represented by a stone at the
place of worship and the people had ceased to eat raw flesh and drink
blood, the blood was poured out over the stone as an offering to the
god. This practice still obtains among the lower castes of Hindus and
the primitive tribes, the blood of animals offered to Devi and other
village deities being allowed to drop on to the stones representing
them. But the higher castes of Hindus have abandoned animal sacrifices,
and hence cannot make the blood-offering. In place of it they smear the
stone with vermilion, which seems obviously a substitute for blood,
since it is used to colour the stones representing the deities in
exactly the same manner. Even vermilion, however, is not offered to
the highest deities of Neo-Hinduism, Siva or Mahadeo and Vishnu, to
whom animal sacrifices would be abhorrent. It is offered to Hanuman,
whose image is covered with it, and to Devi and Bhairon and to the
many local and village deities. In past times animal sacrifices were
offered to Bhairon, as they still are to Devi, and though it is not
known that they were made to Hanuman, this is highly probable, as he
is the god of strength and a mighty warrior. The Manbhao mendicants,
who abhor all forms of bloodshed like the Jains, never pass one of
these stones painted with vermilion if they can avoid doing so, and
if they are aware that there is one on their road will make a circuit
so as not to see it. [87] There seems, therefore, every reason to
suppose that vermilion is a substitute for blood in offerings and
hence probably on other occasions. As the places of the gods were
thus always coloured red with blood, red would come to be the divine
and therefore the propitious colour among the Hindus and other races.