Beyond the idea of inspiration through an interflow of God-representing
blood, there has been in primitive man’s mind (however it came
there) the thought of a possible inter-communion with God through an
inter-union with God by blood. God is life. All life is from God, and
belongs to God. Blood is life. Blood, therefore, as life, may be a
means of man’s inter-union with God. As the closest and most sacred of
covenants between man and man; as, indeed, an absolute merging of two
human natures into one,--is a possibility through an inter-flowing of a
common blood; so the closest and most sacred of covenants between man
and God; so the inter-union of the human nature with the divine,--has
been looked upon as a possibility, through the proffer and acceptance
of a common life in a common blood-flow.
Whatever has been man’s view of sin and its punishment, and of his
separation from God because of unforgiven sin (I speak now of man
as he is found, without the specific teachings of the Bible on this
subject), he has counted blood--his own blood, in actuality or by
substitute--a means of inter-union with God, or with the gods. Blood is
not death, but life. The shedding of blood, Godward, is not the taking
of life, but the giving of life. The outflowing of blood toward God is
an act of gratitude or of affection, a proof of loving confidence, a
means of inter-union. This seems to have been the universal primitive
conception of the race. And an evidence of man’s trust in the
accomplished fact of his inter-union with God, or with the gods, by
blood, has been the also universal practice of man’s inter-communion
with God, or with the gods, by his sharing, in food-partaking, of the
body of the sacrificial offering, whose blood is the means of the
divine-human inter-union.
Perhaps the most ancient existing form of religious worship, as also
the simplest and most primitive form, is to be found in China, in the
state religion, represented by the Emperor’s worship at the Temple of
Heaven, in Peking. And in that worship, the idea of the worshiper’s
inter-communion with God, through the body and blood of the sacrificial
offering, is disclosed, even if not always recognized, by all the
representative Western authorities on the religions of China.
“The Chinese idea of a sacrifice to the supreme spirit of Heaven and of
Earth is that of a banquet. There is no trace of any other idea,” says
Dr. Edkins.[298] Dr. Legge,[299] citing this statement, expands its
significance by saying: “The notion of the whole service [at the Temple
of Heaven] might be that of a banquet; but a sacrifice and a banquet
are incompatible ideas.”[300] He then shows that the Chinese character
_tsî_, signifying “sacrifice,” “covers a much wider space of meaning
than our term sacrifice [as he seems to view our use of that term].”
Morrison gives as one of the meanings of _tsî_, “That which is the
medium between, or brings together, men and Gods”; and Hsü Shan “says,
that _tsî_ is made up of two ideograms;--one the primitive for spiritual
beings, and the other representing a right hand and a piece of flesh.”
Legge adds: “The most general idea symbolized by it is--an offering
whereby communication and communion with spiritual beings [God, or the
gods] is effected.”[301]
Dr. S. Wells Williams says, that “no religious system has been
found among the Chinese which taught the doctrine of the atonement
by the shedding of blood”; and this he counts “an argument in favor
of their [the Chinese] antiquity”; adding that “the state religion
... has maintained its main features during the past three thousand
years.”[302] Williams here, evidently, refers to an expiatory atonement
for sin; and Legge has a similar view of the facts.[303] The idea of an
approach to God through blood--blood as a means of favor, even if not
blood as a canceling of guilt--is obvious, in the outpouring of blood
by the Emperor when he approaches God for his worship in the Temple
of Heaven. The symbolic sacrifice in that worship, which precedes the
communion, is of a whole “burnt offering, of a bullock, entire and
without blemish”;[304] and the blood of that offering is reverently
poured out into the earth,[305] to be buried there, according to the
thought of man and the teachings of God in all the ages. It is even
claimed that as early as 2697 B. C., it was the blood of the first-born
which must be poured out toward God--as a means of favor--in the
Emperor’s approach for communion with God; “a first-born male,” being
offered up “as a whole burnt sacrifice,” in this worship.[306] Surely,
in this surrender of the first-born, there must have been some idea of
an affectionate offering, in the gift of that which was dearest, even
if there was no idea of substitution by way of expiation; something
in addition to the simple idea of “a banquet”; something which was an
essential preliminary to the banquet.
Access to God being attained by the Emperor, the Emperor enjoys
communion with God in the Temple of Heaven. It is after the outpouring
of blood, and the offering of the holocaust, that--in a lull of the
orchestral music, in the great annual sacrifice--“a single voice is
heard, on the upper terrace of the altar, chanting the words, ‘Give the
cup of blessing, and the meat of blessing.’ In response, the officer in
charge of the cushion advances and kneels, spreading the cushion. Other
officers present the cup of blessing and the meat of blessing [which
have already been presented Godward] to the Emperor, who partakes of
the wine and returns them. The Emperor then again prostrates himself,
and knocks his forehead three times against the ground, and then nine
times more, to represent his thankful reception of the wine and meat
[in communion].”[307]
The evidence is abundant, that the main idea of this primitive and
supreme service in the religions of China, is the inter-communion of
the Emperor with God. And there is no lack of proof that in China,
as elsewhere all the world over, blood--as life--is the means of
covenanting in an indissoluble inter-union; of which inter-union,
inter-communion is a result and a proof.
In China, as also in India,[308] when the sacrifice of human beings
was abolished, it was followed by the sacrifice of the horse. And
the horse-sacrifice is still practised in some parts of the Chinese
Empire, on important occasions. A white horse is brought to the brink
of a stream, or a lake, and there sacrificed, by decapitating it,
“burying its head below low-water mark, but _reserving its carcase for
food_.”[309] In a description of this sacrifice, in honor of a certain
goddess, as witnessed by Archdeacon Gray,[310] it is said: “Its
_blood_ was received in a large earthenware jar, and a portion carried
to the temple of the aforesaid goddess; when all the villagers rushed
tumultuously to secure a sprinkling of blood on the charms which they
had already purchased. The rest of the blood was mingled with sand,”
and taken with various accessories, in a boat. “This boat headed a long
procession of richly carved and gilded boats, in which were priests,
both Buddhist and Taouists, and village warriors discharging matchlocks
to terrify the water-devils; while the men in the first boat sprinkle
the waters, as they advance, with blood-stained sand.”
So, again, it is the blood of a cock,--not the body but the
blood,--which is made the propitiatory offering to the goddess known
as “Loong-moo, or the Dragon’s Mother,” on the river junks of China.
The blood is sprinkled on the deck, near a temporary altar, where
libations of wine have already been poured out by master of this junk,
who is the sacrificer. Afterwards, bits of silver paper are “sprinkled
with the blood, and then fastened to the door-posts and lintels of the
cabin”;[311] as if in token of the blood-covenant between those who
are within those doors and the goddess whose substitute blood is there
affixed. And this precedes the feast of inter-communion.[312]
Nor are indications wanting, that the idea of inter-union with the gods
by blood was originally linked with, if it were not primarily based
upon, the rite of blood-covenanting between two human friends. Thus,
Archdeacon Gray unconsciously discloses traces of this rite, in his
description of the exorcising of demons from the body of a child, by
a Taouist priest, in Canton.[313] Certain preliminary ceremonies were
concluded; which were supposed to drive out the demons. “The priest
then proceeded to uncover his [own] arm, and made an incision with a
lancet in the fleshy part. The blood which flowed from the wound, was
allowed to mingle with a small quantity of water in a cup. The seal
of the temple, the impression of which was the name of the idol, was
then dipped into the blood, and stamped upon the wrists, neck, back and
forehead[314] of the poor heathen child.” By this means, that child was
symbolically sealed in covenant relations with the god of that temple,
by the substitute blood of that god’s representative priest.
Thus, also, Dr. Legge, referring to old-time covenantings in China,
says:[315] “Many covenants were made among the feudal princes,--made
over the blood of a victim, with which each covenanting party smeared
the corners of his mouth [which is one form of tasting];[316] while
an appeal was addressed to the invisible powers to inflict vengeance
on all who should violate the conditions agreed upon [the ordinary
imprecatory prayers in the rite of blood-covenanting].” A symbolic
inter-union of blood is a basis of inter-communion between two human
beings, as also between the human and the divine beings even in
China--where, perhaps, that idea would be least likely to be looked for.
It is a common opinion, that in no part of the world is there a more
general prejudice against blood-shedding, or the taking of animal life,
than in India. And it certainly is a fact, that the great religious
systems, of Brahmanism and of Booddhism, which have controlled the
moral sense of the peoples of India for a score or two of centuries,
have exerted themselves, in the main, to the inculcation of these views
as to the sacredness of blood and of life--or of blood which is life.
Hence, we would naturally look, in India, only for traces, or vestiges,
of the primitive, world-wide idea of inter-communion with God, or with
the gods, through a divine-human inter-union by blood. Nor are such
traces and vestiges lacking in the religious customs of India.
In India, as in China, human sacrifices, especially the sacrifice of
the first-born son, were formerly made freely, as a means of bringing
the offerer into closer relations with the gods, through the outpoured
blood.[317] It was the blood, as the life, which was believed to be
the common possession of gods, men, and beasts; hence the final
substitution, in India, of beasts for men, in the blood-covenanting
with the gods. On this point, the evidence seems clear.
The Vedas, or sacred books of the Brahmans, teach, indeed, that the
gods themselves were mere mortals, until by repeated offerings of
blood in sacrifice, to the Supreme Being, they won immortality from
him; which is only another way of making the claim, put forward by the
immortalized-mortal, in the Book of the Dead, of ancient Egypt, that
the mortal became one with the gods through an interflow of a common
life in the common blood of the two. Mortals gave the blood of their
first-born sons in sacrifice to the Supreme Being. Then the Supreme
Being gave the blood of his first-born male in sacrifice. Thus, the
nature of the favored mortals and the nature of the Supreme Being
became one and the same. Dr. Monier Williams cites freely from the
Vedas in the direction of this great truth; although he does not note
its bearing on the blood-covenant rite. Thus, in “the following free
translation of a passage of the Satapatha-brāhmana:
‘The gods lived constantly in dread of Death--
The mighty Ender--so, with toilsome rites
They worshiped, and repeated sacrifices,
Till they became immortal.’”
“And again in the Taittirīya-brāhmana: ‘By means of the sacrifice
the gods obtained heaven.’” In the Tāndya-brāhmanas: “The lord of
creatures offered himself a sacrifice for the gods.” “And again,
in the Satapatha-brāhmana: ‘He who, knowing this, sacrifices with
the _Purusha-medha_, or sacrifice of the primeval male, becomes
everything.’”[318]
That it was the _blood_, which was the chief element in the
covenanting-sacrifice, is evident from all the facts in the case. Thus,
in the Aitareya-brāhmana, it is said: “The gods killed a man for their
victim [of sacrifice]. But from him thus killed, the part which was
fit for a sacrifice went out and entered a horse. Thence, the horse
became an animal fit for being sacrificed. The gods then killed the
horse, but the part of it fit for being sacrificed went out of it and
entered an ox. The gods then killed the ox, but the part of it fit
for being sacrificed went out of it and entered a sheep. Thence it
entered a goat. The sacrificial part remained for the longest time
in the goat; thence it [the goat] became preeminently fit for being
sacrificed!” Indian history shows that this has been the progress of
reform, from the days of human sacrifice downward. “It is remarkable
that in Vedic times, even a cow ... was sometimes killed; and goats, as
is well known, are still sacrificed to the goddess Kālī.”[319] Kalī,
also called Doorgā, is the blood-craving goddess. The blood of one
human victim, it is said, “gives her a gleam of pleasure that endures a
thousand years; and the sacrifice of three men together, would prolong
her ecstacy for a thousand centuries.”[320]
Bishop Heber indicates the “sacrificial part” of the goat as he saw it
offered at a temple of Kālī in Umeer. He was being shown by his guide
through that city, on his first visit there, and the guide proposed a
look at the temple. “He turned short, and led us some little distance
up the citadel, then through a dark, low arch into a small court,
where, to my surprise, the first object which met my eyes was a pool
of blood on the pavement, by which a naked man stood with a bloody
sword in his hand.... The guide ... cautioned me against treading in
the blood, and told me that a goat was sacrificed here every morning.
In fact a second glance showed me the headless body of the poor animal
lying before the steps of a small shrine, apparently of Kali. The
Brahman was officiating and tinkling his bell.... The guide told us,
on our way back, that the tradition was, that, in ancient times a man
was sacrificed here every day; that the custom had been laid aside till
Jye Singh [the builder of Umeer] had a frightful dream, in which the
destroying power appeared to him, and asked why her image was suffered
to be dry [It is _blood_, not _flesh_, that moistens]. The Rajah,
afraid to disobey, and reluctant to fulfil the requisition to its
ancient extent of horror, took counsel and substituted a goat [in which
as well as in man there is blood--which is life--which is the chief
thing in a sacrifice Godward] for the human victim; with which the
‘Dark goddess of the azure flood,
Whose robes are wet with infant tears,
Skull-chaplet wearer, whom the blood
Of man delights three thousand years,’
was graciously pleased to be contented.”[321]
“I had always heard, and fully believed till I came to India,” says
Bishop Heber, “that it was a grievous crime, in the opinion of the
Brahmans, to eat the flesh or shed the blood of any living creature
whatever. I have now myself seen Brahmans of the highest caste cut
off the heads of goats, as a sacrifice to Doorga; and I know from
the testimony of Brahmans, as well as from other sources, that not
only hecatombs of animals are often offered in this manner, as a most
meritorious act (a Rajah, about twenty-five years back [say about A. D.
1800], offered sixty thousand in one fortnight); but that any persons,
Brahmans not excepted, eat readily [in inter-communion] of the flesh
which has been offered up to one of their divinities.”[322]
Clearly, the idea of inter-communion with the gods, on the basis of
the inter-flow of blood, exists in many Brahmanic practices of to-day.
It still finds its expression in the occasional “Sacrifice of the
Yajna, at which a ram is immolated.” It is claimed by the Brahmans
that “this sacrifice is the most exalted and the most meritorious
of all that human beings can devise. It is the most grateful to the
gods. It calls down all sorts of temporal blessings, and blots out all
the sins that can have been accumulated for four generations.” The
ram chosen for this sacrifice must be “entirely white, and without
blemish: of about three years old.” Only Brahmans who are free from
physical infirmities and from ceremonial defects can have a part in
its offering, “at which no man of any other caste can be present.”
Because of the Brahmanic horror of the shedding of blood, the victim is
smothered, or “strangled”; after which it is cut in pieces, and burned
as an oblation. “A part, however, is preserved for him who presides
at the sacrifice, and part for him who is at the expense of it. These
share their portions with the Brahmans who are present; amongst whom
a scuffle ensues, each striving for a small bit of the flesh. Such
morsels as they can catch they tear with their hands, and devour as
a sacred viand [the meat of inter-communion with the gods]. This
practice is the more remarkable, as being the only occasion in their
[the Brahmans’] lives when they can venture to touch animal food.”
“This most renowned sacrifice ... is one of the six privileges of the
Brahmans”; and it would seem that its offering may now be directed to
any one of the divinities, at the preference of the offerer. Formerly
there was also the “_Great_ Sacrifice of the Yajna,” which is no longer
in use. “At this sacrifice,” in its day, “every species of victim was
immolated; and it is beyond doubt that human beings even were offered
up; but the horse and the elephant were the most common.”[323] So,
there has never been an entire absence from the Brahmanic practices of
an inter-communion with the gods through an inter-union by blood.
Even more remarkable than this canonical sacrifice of the Yajna, with
its accompanying inter-communion, are some of the occult sacrifices to
the gods of the Hindoo Pantheon, in which all the ordinary barriers
of caste are disregarded, in the un-canonical but greatly prized
services of inter-communion with the gods on the basis of an inter-flow
of blood. The offerings of blood-flowing sacrifices, including even
the cow, are made before the image of Vishnoo; or, more probably of
Krishna as one of the forms of Vishnoo. The spirituous liquors of
the country are also presented as drink-offerings. Then follows the
inter-communion. “He who administers [at the offering to the god]
tastes each species of meat and of liquor; after which he gives
permission to the worshipers to consume the rest. Then may be seen
men and women rushing forward, tearing and devouring. One seizes a
morsel, and while he gnaws it, another snatches it out of his hands,
and thus it passes on from mouth to mouth till it disappears, while
fresh morsels, in succession, are making the same disgusting round.
The meat being greedily eaten up, the strong liquors and the opium
[which have all been offered to the gods] are sent round. All drink out
of the same cup, one draining what another leaves, in spite of their
natural abhorrence of such a practice.... All castes are confounded,
and the Brahman is not above the Pariah.... Brahmans, Sudras, Pariahs,
men and women, swill the arrack which was the offering to the Saktis,
regardless of the same glass being used by them all, which in ordinary
cases would excite abhorrence. Here it is a virtuous act to participate
in the same morsel, and to receive from each other’s mouths the
half-gnawn flesh.”[324]
The fact that this service is of so disgusting a character, does
not lessen its importance as an illustration of a primitive custom
degraded by successive generations of defiling influences. It still
stands as one of the proofs of the universal custom of an attempted
inter-communion with the gods through an inter-union by blood.
Indeed, there are many traces, in India, of the survival of this
primitive idea. Referring to the worship of Krishna, under the form of
Jagan-natha (or Juggernaut, as the name is popularly rendered) a recent
writer on India says: “Before this monstrous shrine, all distinctions
of caste are forgotten, and even a Christian may sit down and eat with
a Brahman. In his work on Orissa, Dr. W. W. Hunter, says, that at the
‘Sacrament of the Holy Food’ he has seen a Puri priest receive his food
from a Christian’s hand.... This rite is evidently also a survival of
Buddhism [It goes a long way back of that]. It is remarkable that at
the shrine of Vyankoba, an obscure form of Siva, at Pandharpur, in the
Southern Maratha country, caste is also in abeyance, all men being
deemed equal in its presence. Food is daily sent as a gift from the god
to persons in all parts of the surrounding country, and the proudest
Brahman gladly will accept and partake of it from the hands of the
Sudra, or Mahar, who is usually its bearer. There are two great annual
festivals in honor of Jagan-natha.... They are held everywhere; but at
Puri they are attended by pilgrims from every part of India, as many as
200,000 often being present. All the ground is holy within twenty miles
of the pagoda, and the establishment of priests amounts to 3000. The
‘Sacrament of the Holy Food’ is celebrated three times a day.”[325]
Thus it is evident that the idea of inter-communion with the gods
has not been lost sight of in India, even through the influence of
Brahmanism and Booddhism against the idea of divine-human inter-union
by blood--which is life. Indeed, this idea so pervades the religious
thought of the Hindoos, that the commands are specific in their sacred
books, that a portion of all food must be offered to the spirits,
before any of it is partaken of by the eater. “It is emphatically
declared that he who partakes of food before it has been offered in
sacrifice as above described, eats but to his own damnation;”[326]
unless he discerns there the principle of divine-human inter-communion,
he eats to his own spiritual destruction.[327]
And just here it is well to notice an incidental item of evidence that
in India, as in the other lands of the East, the sacrifices to the gods
were in some way linked with the primitive rite of human covenanting
by blood. An Oriental scholar has called attention to the origin of
the nose-ring, so commonly worn in India, as described in the Hindoo
Pāga-Vatham.[328] The story runs, that at the incarnation of Vishnoo as
Krishna, the holy child’s life was sought, and his mother exchanged
her infant for the child of another woman, in order to his protection.
In doing so, she “bored a hole in the nose of her infant, and put a
ring into it as an impediment and a sign. The blood which came from
the wound was as a sacrifice to prevent him from falling into the
hand of his enemies.” And, to this day, the nose-ring has two names,
indicative of its two-fold purpose. “The first [name] is _nate-kaddan_,
which signifies ‘the obligation or debt a person is under by a vow’;
the second [name] is _mooka-taddi_, literally ‘nose-impediment or
hindrance,’ that is, to sickness or death.” The child’s blood is
given in covenant obligation to the gods, and the nose-ring is the
token of the covenant-obligation, and a pledge of protected life.
When a Hindoo youth who has worn a nose-ring would remove it, on
the occasion of his marriage, he must do so with formal ceremonies
at the temple, and by the use of a liquid “which represents blood,”
composed of saffron,[329] of lime, and of water. A young tree must also
be planted in connection with this ceremony, as in the ceremony of
blood-covenanting in some portions of the East.[330] These symbolisms
can hardly fail to be recognized as based on the universal primitive
rite of blood-covenanting.[331]
The very earliest records of Babylon and Assyria, indicate the
outreaching of man for an inter-union with God, or with the gods, by
substitute blood, and the confident inter-communion of man with God, or
with the gods, on the strength of this inter-union by blood. There is
an Akkadian poem which clearly “goes back to pre-Semitic times,” with
its later Assyrian translation, concerning the sacrifice to the gods,
of a first-born son.[332] It says distinctly: “His offspring for his
life he gave.” Here is obviously the idea of vicarious substitution,
of life for life, of the blood of the son for the blood of the father,
but this substitution does not necessarily involve the idea of an
_expiatory_ offering for sin; even though it does include the idea of
_propitiation_. Abraham’s surrender of his first-born son to God was
in proof of his loving trust, not of his sense of a penalty due for
sin. Jephthah’s surrender of his daughter was on a vow of devotedness,
not as an exhibit of remorse, or of penitence, for unexpiated guilt.
In each instance, the outpouring of substitute blood was in evidence
of a desire to be in new covenant oneness with God. Thus Queen Manenko
and Dr. Livingstone made a covenant of blood vicariously, by the
substitution of her husband on the one part, and of an attendant of
Livingstone, on the other part.[333] So, also the Akkadian king may
have sought a covenant union with his god--from whom sin had separated
him--by the substitute blood of his first-born and best loved son.
Certain it is, that the early kings of Babylon and Assyria were
accustomed to make their grateful offerings to the gods, and to
share those offerings with the gods, by way of inter-communion with
the gods, apart from any sense of sin and of its merited punishment
which they may have felt.[334] Indeed, it is claimed, with a show of
reason, that the very word (_surqinu_) which was used for “altar” in
the Assyrian, was primarily the word for “table”; that, in fact, what
was later known as the “altar” to the gods, was originally the table
of communion between the gods and their worshipers.[335] There seems
to be a reference to this idea in the interchanged use of the words
“altar” and “table” by the Prophet Malachi: “And ye say, Wherein have
ye despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine _altar_? And ye
say, Wherein have ye polluted thee? In that ye say, The _table_ of the
Lord is contemptible.”[336] So again, in Isaiah 65 : 11: “But ye that
forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a _table_
for Fortune, and that fill up mingled wine unto Destiny; I will destine
you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter.”
See, in this connection, the Assyrian inscription of Esarhaddon, the
son of Sennacherib,[337] in description of his great palace at Nineveh:
“I filled with beauties the great palace of my empire, and I called it
‘The Palace which Rivals the World.’ Ashur, Ishtar of Nineveh, and the
gods of Assyria, all of them, I feasted within it. Victims precious
and beautiful I sacrificed before them, and I caused them to receive
my gifts. I did for those gods whatever they wished.”[338] It is
even claimed by Assyrian scholars, that in this inter-communion with
the gods, worshipers might partake of the flesh of animals which was
forbidden to them at all other times[339]--as among the Brahmans of
India, to-day.
In farther illustration of the truth, that inter-communion with the
gods was shown in partaking of sacred food with the gods, H. Fox
Talbot, the Assyriologist, says of the ancient Assyrian inscription:
“There is a fine inscription, not yet fully translated, describing
the soul in heaven, clothed in a white radiant garment, seated in the
company of the blessed, and fed by the gods themselves, with celestial
food.”[340]
Among the Parsees, or the Zoroastrians, who intervene, as it were,
between the primitive peoples of Assyria and India, and the later
inhabitants of the Persian empire, there prevailed the same idea
of divine-human inter-union through blood, and of divine-human
inter-communion through sharing the flesh of the proffered and accepted
sacrifice, at the altar, or at the table, of the gods, Ormuzd and
Ahriman. The horse was a favorite substitute victim of sacrifice, among
the Parsees; as also among the Hindoos and the Chinese. Its blood was
the means of divine-human inter-union. “The flesh of the victim was
eaten by the priest and the worshipers; the ‘soul’ [the life, the
blood], of it only was enjoyed by Ormazd.”[341] The communion-drink,
in the Parsee sacrament, as still observed, is the juice of the
_haoma_, or _hom_. “Small bread [or wafers] called Darun, of the size
of a dollar, and covered with a piece of meat, incense, and Haoma, or
Hom,” the juice of the plant known in India as Soma, are used in this
sacrament. “The Darun and the Hom [having been presented to the gods]
are afterwards eaten by the priests,” as in communion.[342] This is
sometimes called the “Sacrament of the Haoma.”[343]
In ancient Egypt, it seems to have been much as in China, and India,
and Assyria. Substitute blood was a basis of inter-union between man
and the gods; and a divine-human inter-communion was secured as a proof
and as a result of that inter-union. That it was human blood which was,
of old in Egypt, poured out as a means of this inter-union (in some
cases at least) seems clear. It is declared by Manetho, and Diodorus,
and Athenæus, and Plutarch, and Porphyry.[344] It is recognized as
proven, by Kenrick[345] and Ebers[346] and other Egyptian scholars.
Wilkinson, it is true, was unwilling to accept its reality, because, in
his opinion, “it is quite incompatible with the character of a nation
whose artists thought acts of clemency towards a foe worthy of record,
and whose laws were distinguished by that humanity which punished with
death the murder even of a slave”;[347] and he prefers to rest on “the
improbability of such a custom among a civilized people.” Yet, a single
item of proof from the monuments would seem sufficient to settle this
question, if it were still deemed a question. The ideogram which was
employed on the seal of the priests, authorizing the slaying of an
animal in sacrifice, “bore the figure of a man on his knees, with his
hands tied behind him, and a sword pointed at his throat.”[348]
Herodotus,[349] describing the magnificent festival of Isis, at
Busiris, says that a bull was sacrificed on that occasion; and we know
that in every such sacrifice the blood of the victim was poured out
as an oblation, at the altar.[350] When the duly prepared offering
was consumed upon the altar, those portions of the victim which had
been reserved were eaten by the priest and others.[351] Herodotus
says, moreover, that some of the Greeks who were present at this
festival, were in the habit of causing their own blood to flow during
the consuming of the sacrifice, as if in proof of their desire for
inter-union with the goddess, as precedent to their inter-communion
with her. He says: “But as many of the Karians as are dwelling in
Egypt, do yet more than these [native Egyptians], inasmuch as they
cut their foreheads with swords;[352] and so they are shown to be
foreigners and not Egyptians.”[353]
It would even seem that in Egypt, as in other parts of the primitive
world, the prohibition of the eating of many sacred animals applied to
the eating of them when not offered in sacrifice. Because those animals
became, as it were, on the altar, or on the table, of the gods, a
portion of the gods themselves, they must not be eaten except by those
who discerned in them the body of the gods, and who were entitled to
share them in inter-communion with the gods.[354]
The monumental representations of the other world show the gods sharing
food and drink with the souls of the deceased.[355] And the idea of
a divine-human inter-communion through the partaking by gods and
men of the food provided for, or accepted by, the former, runs all
through the Egyptian record. A remarkable illustration of this idea
is found in an extended inscription from the tomb of Setee I., whose
daughter is supposed to have been the finder of the infant Moses. In
this inscription, which is sometimes called the Book of Hades, or more
properly the Book of Amenti, the Sun-god Rā is represented as passing
through Amenti--or the under world--on his nocturnal circuit, and
speaking words of approval to his disembodied worshipers there.[356]
“These are they who worshiped Rā on the earth, ... who offered their
oblations.... They are [now] masters of their refreshments; they take
their meat; they seize their offerings in the porch of him, whose being
is mysterious.... Rā says to them, Your offerings are yours; take your
refreshment.” Again and again the declaration is made of “the elect,”
of those who are greeted by Rā in Amenti: “Their food is (composed)
of Rā’s bread; their drink [is] of his liquor _tesher_ [a common word
for “red,” often standing for “blood”[357]]”. And yet again: “Their
food is to hear the word of this god.”[358] “Their food is that of the
veridical [the truth-speaking] ones. Offerings are [now] made to them
on earth; because the true word is in them.”[359]
Thus there was inter-communion between man and the gods in ancient
Egypt, on the basis of a blood-made inter-union between man and the
gods; as there was also in primitive Assyria and Babylon, in primitive
India, and in primitive China.
Turning now from the far East to the far West, we find that Central
American and South American history and legends tend to illustrate
the same primitive belief, that inter-communion with the gods was
to be secured by the hearty surrender of self--as evidenced by the
tender of personal, or of substitute _blood_. A Guatemalan legend
has its suggestion of that outreaching of man for fire from heaven,
which is illustrated in the primitive and the classic myths of the
ages.[360] The men of Guatemala were without the heaven-born fire, and
they turned, in their longing, to the Quiché god, Tohil, seeking it
from him, on such terms as he might prescribe. “The condition finally
named by the god was, that they consent to ‘unite themselves to me,
under their armpit, and under their girdle, and that they embrace me,
Tohil’; a condition not very clearly expressed [says a historian], but
which, as is shown by what follows, was an agreement to worship the
Quiché god, and sacrifice to him their _blood_, and, if required, their
_children_. They accepted the condition, and received the fire.”[361]
In the light of the prevailing customs of the world, concerning this
rite of blood-covenanting, the requirements of the Quiché god were
clearly based on the symbolism of that rite; as the historian did
not perceive, from his unfamiliarity with the rite. If men would be
in favor with that god, and would receive his choicest gifts, they
must unite themselves to him; must enter into oneness of nature with
him, by giving of their blood, from “under their armpit, and under
their girdle”; from the source of life, and at the issue of life; for
themselves and for their seed; and they must lovingly embrace their
covenant-god, accordingly. And in the counsel given to those new
worshipers, it was said: “Make first your thanksgiving; prepare the
holes in your ears; [blood was drawn from the ears, as well as from
other parts of the body, in Central American worship; indeed one of
their festivals was ‘the feast of piercing the ears,’ suggesting a
similar religious custom in India;[362]] pierce your elbows; and offer
sacrifice. This will be your act of gratitude before God.”[363]
Among all these aboriginal races of Central America, not only was the
flesh of the sacrificial offerings eaten as in communion with the gods;
but the blood of the offerings, and also the blood of the offerers
themselves, was sometimes sprinkled upon, or commingled with, those
articles of food, which were made a means of spiritual inter-communion
with their deities. Cakes of maize sprinkled with their own blood,
drawn from “under the girdle,” during their religious worship, were
“distributed and eaten as blessed bread.”[364] Moreover, an image of
their god, made with certain seeds from the first fruits of their
temple gardens, with a certain gum, and with the blood of human
sacrifices, was partaken of by them reverently, under the name, “Food
of our soul.”[365] At the conclusion of one of the great feasts of the
year at Cuzco, in Peru, the worshipers “received the loaves of maize
and the sacrificial blood, which they ate as a symbol of brotherhood
with the Ynca”[366]--who claimed to be of divine blood and of divine
power.
Herrera describes one of these ceremonies of inter-communion with the
gods, by means of a blood-moistened representation of a god. “An idol
made of all the varieties of the seeds and grain of the country, was
made, and moistened with the blood of children and virgins. This idol
was broken into small bits, and given by way of communion to men and
women to eat; who, to prepare for that festival, bathed, and dressed
their heads, and scarce slept all the night. They prayed, and as soon
as it was day [they] were all in the temple to receive that communion,
with such singular silence and devotion, that though there was an
infinite multitude, there seemed to be nobody. If any of the idol was
left, the priests ate it.”[367]
So marked, indeed, was the sacramental character of these Peruvian
communion feasts, that a Spanish Jesuit missionary to that country,
three centuries ago, was disposed to see in them an invention of Satan,
rather than a survival of a world-wide primitive custom. He said: “That
which is most admirable in the hatred and presumption of Sathan is,
that he not only counterfeited in idolatry and sacrifices, but also
in certain ceremonies, our sacraments, which Jesus Christ our Lord
instituted, and the Holy Church uses; having, especially, pretended to
imitate, in some sort, the sacrament of the communion, which is the
most high and divine of all others.”[368]
Yet again, a prisoner of war would be selected to represent one
of the gods, and so to be partaken of, in inter-communion through
his blood. He would receive the name of the god; and for a longer
or a shorter time,--“sometimes a year, sometimes six months, and
sometimes less,”--he would be ministered to, and would receive honors
and reverence as a god. Then he would be offered in sacrifice. His
heart would be presented to the god. His blood would be employed
reverently--as was the case with all sacrifices--in token of
covenanting. His flesh would be eaten by the worshipers of the god
whom he represented.[369] This “rite of dressing and worshiping the
sacrifices like the deities themselves, is related as being performed
at the festivals of many gods and goddesses.”[370]
A remarkable illustration of the unity of the race, and of the
universal sweep of these customs in conjunction with the symbolism
of the blood-covenant, is found in the similarity of this last named
Central American practice, with a practice charged upon the Jews by
Apion, as replied to by Josephus. The charge is, that “Antiochus found,
upon entering the temple [at Jerusalem], a man lying upon a bed, with
a table before him, set out with all the delicacies that either sea
or land could afford.” This captive’s story was: “I am a Greek, and
wandering up and down in quest of the means of subsistence, was taken
up by some foreigners, brought to this place, and shut up.... They
gave me to understand, that the Jews had a custom among them, once a
year, upon a certain day prefixed, to seize upon a Grecian stranger,
and when they had kept him fattening one whole year, to take him into
a wood, and offer him up for a sacrifice according to their own form,
_taking a taste of his blood_, with a horrid oath to live and die sworn
enemies to the Greeks.”[371] Baseless as was this charge against the
Jews, its very framing indicates the existence in the East,--possibly
among the Phœnicians,--in days prior to the Christian era, as well
as in pre-historic times in the West, of the custom of seeking
inter-communion with God, or with the gods, by the tasting of the blood
of a substitute human victim, offered in sacrifice to God, or to the
gods.
At the two extremes of the world, to-day, among the primitive Bed´ween
of the Desert of Arabia, and among the primitive Indians of the
prairies of North America, there lingers a trace of this world-wide
idea, that the body of an offering covenanted to God by its blood, can
be a means of inter-communion with God in its eating. Both the Bed´ween
and the Indians connect in their minds the fact of sacrificing and of
feasting; and they speak of the two things interchangeably.
An Arab, when he makes a feast, speaks of sacrificing the animal
which is the main feature of that feast. I saw an Arab wedding at
Castle Nakhl, on the Arabian Desert. The bridegroom sacrificed a young
dromedary in honor of the occasion, and to furnish, as it were, the
sacramental feast. The blood of the victim was poured out unto the
Lord, by being buried in the earth--as the Chinese bury the blood of
their sacrifices in the Temple of Heaven. Portions of the dromedary
were eaten by all the guests, and a portion was sent to the stranger
encamping near them. And that is the common method of Arab sacrificing
and feasting.
There is much of similarity in the ways of the Arabs and of the
Indians. The Indian feasts are largely feasts of inter-communion with
the gods. Whether it were the human victim, of former times, whose
blood was drunk and whose heart was eaten, as preliminary to the
feasting on his entire remains;[372] or, whether it be the preserved
hearts and tongues of the buffaloes, which now form the basis of some
of the sacred feasts of the Indians;[373]--the idea of divine-human
inter-communion was and is inseparable from the idea of the feast. The
first portion of the feast is always proffered to the spirits, in order
to make it, in a peculiar sense, a sacred feast. Then, each person
having a part in the feast is expected to eat the full share assigned
to him;[374] unless indeed he be permitted to carry a remainder of it
away “as sacred food” for the benefit of the others.[375]
And so the common root-idea shows itself, in lesser or in larger
degree, all the world over, and in all the ages. It is practically
universal.
One of the many proofs that the idea of a blood-covenanting sacrifice
is that of a loving inter-communion between man and God, or the
gods, is the fact that the animals offered in sacrifice are always
those animals which are suitable for eating, whether their eating
is allowed at other times than when sacrificed, or not. “Animals
offered in sacrifice [at the Temple of Heaven, in China],” says Dr.
Edkins, “must be those in use for human food. There is no trace
in China of any distinction between clean and unclean animals, as
furnishing a principle in selecting them for sacrifice. That which
is good for food is good for sacrifice, is the principle guiding in
their selection.”[376] The same _principle_ has been already noted as
prevailing in the sacrifices of India, Assyria, and Egypt; although in
these last named countries many animals which are “good for food” are
not “in use for human food” except as they are served up at the table
of the gods.[377] In the primitive New World it was the same as in
the primitive Old World. Referring to the sacrifices in ancient Peru,
Réville says, “It should be noted that they only sacrificed edible
animals, which [as he would understand it] is a clear proof that the
intention was to feed the gods”;[378] and it certainly seems a clear
proof that the intention was to feed the worshipers who shared the
sacred food.
That this sharing of the proffered and accepted sacrifice, in
divine-human inter-communion, was counted a sharing of the divine
nature, by the communicant, seems evident, as widely as the world-wide
custom extended. The inter-union was wrought by intermingled blood;
the inter-communion gave a common progress to the common nature. The
blood gave common life; the flesh gave common nourishment. “Almost
everywhere,” says Réville,[379] “but especially among the Aztecs, we
find the notion, that the victim devoted to a deity, and therefore
destined to pass into his substance, and to become by assimilation an
integral part of him, is already co-substantial with him, has already
become part of him; so that the worshiper in his turn, by himself
assimilating a part of the victim’s flesh, unites himself in substance
with the divine being. And now observe [continues this student in the
science of comparative religion] that in all religions the longing,
whether grossly or spiritually apprehended, to enter into the closest
possible union with the adored being, is fundamental. This longing is
inseparable from the religious sentiment itself, and becomes imperious
wherever that sentiment is warm; and this consideration is enough to
convince us that it is in harmony with the most exalted tendencies of
our nature, but may likewise, in times of ignorance, give rise to the
most deplorable aberrations.” This observation is the more noteworthy,
in that it is made by so pronounced a rationalist as Réville.
It would even seem to be indicated, by all the trend of historic facts,
that cannibalism--gross, repulsive, inhuman cannibalism--had its basis
in man’s perversion of this outreaching of his nature (whether that
outreaching were first directed by revelation, or by divinely given
innate promptings) after inter-union and inter-communion with God;
after life in God’s life, and after growth through the partaking of
God’s food, or of that food which represents God. The studies of many
observers in widely different fields have led both the rationalistic
and the faith-filled student to conclude, that in _their_ sphere
of observation it was a religious sentiment, and not a mere animal
craving,--either through a scarcity of food, or from a spirit of
malignity,--that was at the bottom of cannibalistic practices there;
even if that field were an exception to the world’s fields generally.
And now we have a glimpse of the nature and workings of that religious
sentiment which prompted cannibalism wherever it has been practised.
Man longed for oneness of life with God. Oneness of life could come
only through oneness of blood. To secure such oneness of life, man
would give of his own blood, or of that substitute blood which could
best represent himself. Counting himself in oneness of life with God,
through the covenant of blood, man has sought for nourishment and
growth through partaking of that food which in a sense was life, and
which in a larger sense gave life, because it was the food of God, and
because it was the food which stood for God. In misdirected pursuance
of this thought, men have given the blood of a consecrated human victim
to bring themselves into union with God; and then they have eaten of
the flesh of that victim which had supplied the blood which made them
one with God. This seems to be the basis of _fact_ in the premises;
whatever may be the understood _philosophy_ of the facts. _Why_ men
reasoned thus, may indeed be in question. _That_ they reasoned thus,
seems evident.
Certain it is, that where cannibalism has been studied in modern times,
it has commonly been found to have had originally, a religious basis;
and the inference is a fair one, that it must have been the same
wherever cannibalism existed in earlier times. Even in some regions
where cannibalism has long since been prohibited, there are traditions
and traces of its former existence as a purely religious rite. Thus,
in India, little images of flour paste or clay, are now made for
decapitation, or other mutilation, in the temples,[380] in avowed
imitation of human beings, who were once offered and eaten there.
Referring to the frequency of human sacrifices in India, in earlier
and in later times, and to these emblematic substitutes for them, now
employed, the Abbé Dubois says:[381] “In the kingdom of Tanjore there
is a village called Tirushankatam Kudi, where a solemn festival is
celebrated every year, at which great multitudes of people assemble,
each votary bringing with him one of those little images of dough,
into the temple, dedicated to Vishnu, and there cutting off the head
in honor of that god. This ceremony, which is annually performed with
great solemnity, was instituted in commemoration of a famous event
which happened in that village.
“Two virtuous persons lived there, Sirutenden and his wife
Vanagata-ananga, whose faith and piety Vishnu was desirous to prove.
He appeared to them, and demanded no other service of them but that
of sacrificing, with their own hands, their only and much beloved son
Siralen, and _serving up his flesh for a repast_. The parents with
heroic courage, surmounting the sentiments and chidings of nature,
obeyed without hesitation, and submitted to the pleasure of the god.
So illustrious an act of devotion is held worthy of this annual
commemoration, at which the sacrifice is emblematically renewed. The
same barbarous custom is preserved in many parts of India; and the
ardor with which the people engage in it leaves room to suspect that
they still regret the times when they would have been at liberty to
offer up to their sanguinary gods, the reality, instead of the symbol.”
Such a legend as this, taken in conjunction with the custom which
perpetuates it, and with all the known history of human sacrifices, in
India and elsewhere, furnishes evidence that cannibalism as a religious
rite was known to the ancestors of the present dwellers in India. And
as it is in the far East, so it is in the far West; and so, also, in
mid-ocean.
Thus, for example, in the latter field, among the degraded Feejee
Islanders, where one would be least likely to look for the sway of a
religious sentiment in the more barbarous customs of that barbarous
people, this truth has been recognized by Christian missionaries, who
would view the relics of heathenism with no undue favor. The Rev.
Messrs. Williams and Calvert,--the one after thirteen years, and the
other after seventeen years of missionary service there,--said on this
subject: “Cannibalism is a part of the Fijian religion, and the gods
are described as delighting in human flesh.” And again: “Human flesh
is still the most valued offering [to the gods], and their ‘drink
offerings of blood’ are still the most acceptable [offerings to the
gods] in some parts of Fiji.”[382]
It was the same among the several tribes of the North American Indians,
according to the most trustworthy testimony. A Dutch clergyman, Dominie
Megapolensis, writing two centuries ago from near the present site of
Albany, “bears the strongest testimony to the ferocity with which his
friends, the Mohawks treated their prisoners, ... and is very explicit
as to cannibalism. ‘The common people,’ he says ‘eat the arms,
buttocks, and trunk; but the chiefs eat the head and the heart.’ This
feast was of a religious character.”[383] Parkman says, of the “hideous
scene of feasting [which] followed the torture of a prisoner,” “it was,
among the Hurons, partly an act of vengeance, and partly a religious
rite.”[384] He cites evidence, also, that there was cannibalism among
the Miamis, where “the act had somewhat of a religious character [and],
was attended with ceremonial observances.”[385]
Of the religious basis of cannibalism among the primitive peoples
of Central and South America, students seem agreed. Dorman who has
carefully collated important facts on this subject from varied sources,
and has considered them in their scientific bearings, is explicit in
his conclusions at this point. Reviewing all the American field, he
says: “I have dwelt longer upon the painful subject of cannibalism than
might seem desirable, in order to show its religious character and
prevalence everywhere. Instead of being confined to savage peoples,
as is generally supposed, it prevailed to a greater extent and with
more horrible rites among the most civilized. Its religious inception
was the cause of this.”[386] Again, he says, of the peoples of Mexico
and of the countries south of it: “All the Nahua nations practised
this religious cannibalism. That cannibalism as a source of food,
unconnected with religious rites, was ever practised, there is little
evidence. Sahagun and Las Casas regard the cannibalism of the Nahuas
as an abhorrent feature of their religion, and not as an unnatural
appetite.”[387]
Réville, treating of the native religions of Mexico and Peru comes to a
similar conclusion with Dorman; and he argues that the state of things
which was there was the same the world over, so far as it related to
cannibalism. “Cannibalism,” he says,[388] “which is now restricted to a
few of the savage tribes who have remained closest to the animal life,
was once universal to our race. For no one would ever have conceived
the idea of offering to the gods a kind of food which excited nothing
but disgust and horror.” In this suggestion, Réville indicates his
conviction that the primal idea of an altar was a table of blood-bought
communion. “Human sacrifices” however, he goes on to say, “prevailed
in many places when cannibalism had completely disappeared from the
habits and tastes of the population. Thus the Semites of Western Asia,
and the Çivaïte Hindus, the Celts, and some of the populations of
Greece and Italy, long after they had renounced cannibalism, still
continued to sacrifice human beings to their deities.” And he might
have added, that some savage peoples continued cannibalism when the
religious idea of its beginning had been almost swept away entirely
by the brutalism of its inhuman nature and tendencies. Referring to
the date of the conquest of Mexico, he says: “Cannibalism, in ordinary
life, was no longer practised. The city of Mexico underwent all the
horrors of famine during the siege conducted by Fernando Cortes. When
the Spaniards finally entered the city, they found the streets strewn
with corpses, which is a sufficient proof that human flesh was not
eaten even in dire extremities. And, nevertheless, the Aztecs not only
pushed human sacrifices to a frantic extreme, but they were _ritual
cannibals_, that is to say, there were certain occasions on which they
ate the flesh of the human victims they had immolated.”[389]
And as it was in India and in America and in the Islands of the Sea; so
it seems to have been wherever the primitive idea of cannibalism as a
prevalent custom has been intelligently sought out.[390]