Gradually, however, as the reverence for animals declined and the
true level of their intelligence compared to that of man came to be
better appreciated, the sanctity attaching to their lives no doubt
grew weaker. Then it would become permissible to kill a domestic animal
privately and otherwise than by a joint sacrifice of the clan; but the
old custom of justifying the slaughter by offering it to the god would
still remain. "At this stage, [378] at least among the Hebrews, the
original sanctity of the life of domestic animals is still recognised
in a modified form, inasmuch as it is held unlawful to use their flesh
for food except in a sacrificial meal. But this rule is not strict
enough to prevent flesh from becoming a familiar luxury. Sacrifices
are multiplied on trivial occasions of religious gladness or social
festivity, and the rite of eating at the sanctuary loses the character
of an exceptional sacrament, and means no more than that men are
invited to feast and be merry at the table of their god, or that no
feast is complete in which the god has not his share." [379] This is
the stage reached by the Hebrews in the time of Samuel, as described
by Professor Robertson Smith, and it bears much resemblance to that of
the lower Hindu castes and the Gonds at the present time. They too,
when they can afford to kill a goat or a pig, cows being prohibited
in deference to Hindu susceptibility, take it to the shrine of some
village deity and offer it there prior to feasting on it with their
friends. At intervals of a year or more many of the lower castes
sacrifice a goat to Dulha Deo, the bridegroom-god, and Thakur Deo,
the corn-god, and eat the body as a sacrificial meal within the
house, burying the bones and other remnants beneath the floor of the
house. [380] Among the Kafirs of the Hindu Kush, when a man wishes to
become a Jast, apparently a revered elder or senator, he must give a
series of feasts to the whole community, so expensive that many men
utterly ruin themselves in becoming Jast. The initiatory proceedings
are sacrifices of bulls and male goats to Gish, the war-god, at the
village shrine. The animals are examined with jealous eyes by the
spectators, to see that they come up to the prescribed standard
of excellence. After the sacrifice the meat is divided among the
people, who carry it to their homes. These special sacrifices at
the shrine recur at intervals; but the great slaughterings are at
the feast-giver's own house, where he entertains sometimes the Jast
exclusively and sometimes the whole tribe, as already mentioned. [381]
Even in the latter case, however, after a big distribution at the
giver's house one or two goats are offered to the war-god at his
shrine; and while the animals are being killed at the house offerings
are made on a sacrificial fire, and as each goat is slain a handful
of its blood is taken and thrown on the fire. [382] The Kafirs would
therefore appear to be in the stage when it is still usual to kill
domestic animals as a sacrifice to the god, but no longer obligatory.