looking round, and each householder carrying off a particle to bury in like manner in his favourite field.[1] For offerings to the Fire, we may take for an example the Yakuts, who not only give him the first spoonful of food, but instead of washing their earthen pots allow him to clean out the remains.[2] Here is a New Zealand charm called Wangaihau, i.e., feeding the Wind: —
'Lift up his offering, To Uenga a te Rangi his offering, Eat, O invisible one, listen to me, Let that food bring you down from the sky.'[3]
Beside this may be set the quaint description of the Fanti negroes assisting at the sacrifice of men and cattle to the local fetish ; the victims were considered to be carried up in a whirlwind out of the midst of the small inner ring of priests and priestesses ; this whirlwind was, however, not perceptible to the senses of the surrounding worshippers.[4] These series of details collected from the lower civilization throw light on curious problems as to sacrificial ideas in the religions of the classic world; such questions as what Xerxes meant when he threw the golden goblet and the sword into the Hellespont, which he had before chained and scourged; why Hannibal cast animals into the sea as victims to Poseidon; what religious significance underlay the patriotic Roman legend of the leap of Marcus Curtius.[5]
Sacred animals, in their various characters of divine beings, incarnations, representatives, agents, symbols, naturally receive meat and drink offerings, and sometimes other gifts. For examples, may be mentioned the sun-birds (tonatzuli), for which the Apalaches of Florida set out
1 Macpherson, 'India,' p. 129.
2 Billings, 'Exp. to Northern Russia,' p. 125. Chinese sacrifices buried for earth spirits, see ante, vol. i. p. 107; Plath, part ii. p. 50.
3 Taylor, 'New Zealand,' p. 182.
4 Römer, 'Guinea,' p. 67.
5 Herod, vii. 35, 54. Liv. vii. 6. Grote, 'Hist. of Greece,' vol. x. p. 589, see p. 715.
