At the heathen festivals in India, the traffickers in
sacrificial goods resort to all sorts of devices. Low-caste men
have baskets containing little pigs from two days to a month
old. These they sell to the high-caste worshipers, cutting the
throat of the pig in the presence of the buyer and smearing
some blood upon his pious forehead. But by a trick known to the
salesman, the windpipe is not severed, so he sells the pig over
and over. In the same way coconuts are sold whose milk has been
dry for years, and rotten fruit and blind animals are bought at
bargains--anything is good enough for offerings to the gods!
(2238)