The custom of the Thugs, and in a less degree of ignorant and primitive
races generally, of being guided in their every action by the chance
indications afforded from the voices and movements of birds and animals
appears to the civilised mind extremely foolish. But its explanation
is not difficult when the character of early religious beliefs is
realised. It was held by savages generally that animals, birds and all
other living things, as well as trees and other inanimate objects,
had souls and exercised conscious volition like themselves. And
those animals, such as the tiger and cow, and other objects, such
as the sun and moon and high mountains or trees, which appeared most
imposing and terrible, or exercised the most influence on their lives,
were their principal deities, the spirits of which at a later period
developed into anthropomorphic gods. Even the lesser animals and
birds were revered and considered to be capable of affecting the
lives of men. Hence their appearance, their flight and their cries
were naturally taken to be direct indications afforded by the god to
his worshippers; and it was in the interpretation of these, the signs
given by the divine beings by whom man was surrounded, and whom at one
time he considered superior to himself, that the science of augury
consisted. "The priestesses of the oracle of Zeus at Dodona called
themselves doves, as those of Diana at Ephesus called themselves bees;
this proves that the oracles of the temples were formerly founded on
observations of the flight of doves and bees, and no doubt also that
the original cult consisted in the worship of these animals." [712]
Thus, as is seen here, when the deity was no longer an animal but had
developed into a god in human shape, the animal remained associated
with him and partook of his sanctity; and what could be more natural
than that he should convey the indications of his will through the
appearance, movements and cries of the sacred animal to his human
_protégés_. The pseudo-science of omens is thus seen to be a natural
corollary of the veneration of animals and inanimate objects.