Chapter 48 Eating god meat is homeopathic witchcraft

We have already examined the practice of killing gods among peoples whose social development has reached the agricultural stage.We have seen that the spirits of corn or other crops usually take the form of men or animals; and we see also that in some places it is a custom to annually kill the god's personal or animal representatives.Why is the corn-killer represented by the corn-killer?There is a reason which has been hinted at earlier in this book: we may regard the purpose as preventing him or her (the corn-spirit is often female) from old age and infirmity, and to transfer the corn-spirit to a young and vigorous on the heirs.Apart from wishing to renew his divine energy, it may have been thought that the corn-spirit's death was inevitable under the scythe or knife of the reaper, and that his worshipers were obliged to grudgingly acknowledge this lamentable inevitability.But, looking a little further, we find a very common custom to eat the Lord's Eucharist, or to eat a person or animal representing him, or to eat bread in the form of a man or an animal.Viewed from a primitive point of view, the reason for this eating of the body of the gods is rather simple.Most savages believe that by eating the flesh of an animal or a man, he acquires not only the physical, but also the moral and intellectual properties of that animal or man.So, if a living being is thought to be spiritual, we simple savages naturally wish to absorb some of its physical qualities as well as a part of its spirituality.The general belief that good and evil are attainable through the medium of meat-eating is best demonstrated by examples, some of which do not even offer the pretense that the food is the body or blood of a god.This theory forms part of the wide variety of sympathetic or homeopathic witchcraft.

For example, the Creeks, Cherokees, and their fellow North American Indian tribes "believed that nature possesses a property which transfers to man and animals the qualities of things which he eats or which his senses come into contact with. and animals; the man who feeds on venison is, in terms of physical constitution, much quicker and more agile in his hands and feet than the man who feeds on the meat of a heavy bear; The same is true of men who feed on cows, or heavy mud-rolling pigs. Several old people among them justified this, and said that in the past, some of their biggest leaders always obeyed a rule in food. They seldom eat animals of poor texture or lumbering action, thinking that eating such animals will make the whole body dull and clumsy, and will not have enough energy to exercise their great, administrative or religious functions."The Zabalo Indians of Ecuador "in most cases never, except as a last resort, eat the meat of heavy tapirs and wild boars, but eat only birds, monkeys, deer, fish, etc., mainly on the grounds that they eat stupid meat, they will become clumsy like the animals that feed them, hindering their dexterity and making them unfit for hunting."Likewise some Indians in Brazil do not eat animals, birds, or fish that move slowly, fly, or swim slowly, lest they should lose their dexterity, and be unable to escape their enemies in a critical moment.The Caribs don't eat pork, for fear that eating pork will make them grow small eyes like pigs; they don't eat turtles, for fear that eating tortoises will make them as clumsy and heavy as turtles.For similar reasons, the Fann people of West Africa never eat tortoises in their prime; they feel that if they do, they will lose the strength and speed of their legs.But old people can eat turtles as they please, since they have lost the ability to run, and there is no harm in eating the meat of a slow-moving animal.

Many savages dare not eat slow-moving animals, lest they themselves become sluggish.A nomadic tribe in Antarctica's Kalahari desert deliberately ate the animal's meat, and the justification they gave for eating it shows a surprisingly subtle savage philosophy.They believe that the prey they chase will be induced by the food in the hunter's body. If he eats a fast-running animal, the prey will also run fast and escape the hunter; if he eats a slow-running animal, the prey will also run slowly. The hunter can catch it and kill it, and for this reason the hunters of the eland will never eat the meat of the fast and nimble antelope; they will not even touch it with their hands, because they think the antelope is a very lively animal. They don't sleep at night. If they eat antelopes, the elands they want to hunt will not sleep, and they don't even sleep at night.So how do they go about catching it?

The Namaqua do not eat the flesh of hares, because they feel that it will make them cowardly, like hares, but they eat lions, and drink leopard or lion blood, in order to gain the courage and strength of these beasts.The Kalahari nomadic tribes do not let their children eat the hearts of jackals, fearing that the hearts of jackals will make their children cowardly like jackals, but letting their children eat the hearts of leopards will make them brave like leopards.The Wagogo of East Africa killed a lion, and he ate the lion's heart in order to be as brave as the lion; he thought eating the heart of a hen would make him cowardly.When a severe disease strikes a Zulu village, the magician takes a very old leopard bone, or an old cow, or bull, or other very old animal, and feeds it to the healthy and the sick alike, The idea is that they would eat the bones and live as old as the animal.In order to rejuvenate the old Asong, the witch Midea injected the liver of a long-lived deer into a potion from the head of a cow that lived longer than nine generations and injected it into the old man's blood vessels.

Among the Dayaks of northwestern Borneo, young men and warriors do not eat venison, because it makes them cowardly like deer; but women and very old men eat venison at will.The Kayas of the same district, who hold the same opinion about the ill effects of eating venison, nevertheless eat this dangerous food as long as it is cooked in the open air, thinking that the deer's cowardice The elves have gone to the jungle, so they won't enter the meat-eater's body.The Aino people believe that the crake's heart is particularly intelligent, and its speech is the most powerful.Therefore, when a crake is killed, it must be disemboweled immediately, and its heart must be disembowelled, and it must be swallowed while it is hot or when it is not damaged in any way.If a man swallows a crake's heart in this way, he becomes very clever and intelligent, and can refute all who argue with him.People in northern India believe that whoever eats the eyeballs of an owl will be able to see at night just like the owl.

Before the Kansas Indians went to war, they used to hold a banquet in the chief's cabin, and the main course was dog meat.The Indians say that the dog, who would rather allow himself to be cut in pieces to protect his master, must inspire courage.The Bru and Aru of the East Indies eat dog meat for bravery and agility in war.Among the Papuans of Port Moresby [now the capital of Papua Guinea] and the Motu Motu region of New Guinea, young men ate strong pigs, kangaroos, and large fish in order to gain animal and fish strength.Some aborigines in northern Australia believe that eating kangaroo or emu meat will enable them to jump higher and run faster than before.The Miri of Assam value tiger meat as human food; tiger meat makes them strong and brave.But "women are not fit to eat; that would make them too strong-willed".In Goryeo [now Korea], as a means of making people brave, the bones of tigers are more expensive than the bones of leopards.A Tang man in Seoul bought a whole tiger and ate it all in order to be as brave as a tiger.In Norse mythology, King Onand's son Ingyod was cowardly when he was young, but he became very brave after eating the wolf's heart; Hiortu gained strength and courage from eating the bear's heart and drinking the bear's blood .

In Morocco let the drowsy sick swallow ants, and eat the meat of lions to make cowards brave;When the Turks in Central Asia encountered a child who was slow to learn to speak, they gave him the tongue of some kind of bird.There was a North American Indian who believed that brandy must be water made from the heart and tongue.He said: "Because, after I drink it, I am not afraid of anything, and I can speak very well." There is a kind of small earthworm in Java, which often makes a scream, like the sound of a small alarm clock.Therefore, when a dancing girl became hoarse in the performance of her calling, the leader of the troupe made her eat some of these worms, thinking that her voice would recover and she could scream as before.The Darfur people in Central Africa believe that the liver is the seat of the soul, and if a person eats the liver of an animal, he can strengthen his soul. "Whenever an animal is killed, its liver is taken out and eaten, but people are careful not to touch the liver, because they consider it sacred; A small piece of liver can be delivered to the mouth with a sharp stick. Anyone who accidentally touches the liver is not allowed to eat it. It is his great misfortune to be forbidden to eat liver.”Women are not allowed to eat liver because they have no soul.

Usually the flesh and blood of the dead is also eaten to absorb the bravery, intelligence or other qualities unique to those dead people, or it is believed that the qualities such as bravery and intelligence are in a specific part to be eaten.Therefore, among the mountain tribes in southeastern Africa, there are some ceremonies for organizing young people to join guilds or gangs. In the guild initiation ceremony, one of the ceremonies is to instill bravery, wisdom and other qualities into the new entrants.When an enemy of outstanding valor is slain, his liver is regarded as the seat of bravery, his ears are of wisdom, the skin of his forehead is of endurance, and many other parts are considered seats of other virtues, which are Burn to ashes.The ashes are carefully preserved with ox horns, and when circumcision is held, they are mixed with other ingredients to make a paste, and the priests in the clan give the young people to eat.In this way, the strength, courage, wisdom, and other virtues of the slain are passed on to the eater.When the mountain-dwelling Basothos kill a very brave enemy, they immediately dig out the heart and eat it, because they think it will give them courage and strength in battle.When Charles was killed by the Ashanti people in 824, it is said that his heart was eaten by the leaders of the Ashanti army, who hoped to inhale his courage in this way.His flesh was dried and cut into pieces for the lesser officers, and for this purpose his bones were long preserved in Kumasi as objects of national worship.The Nowra Indians of New Granada eat the hearts of Spaniards when they get the chance, hoping that by doing so they will be as fearless as the Castilian warriors.Sioux [The Sioux Indians of the northern United States and the contiguous area of ​​Canada, also called the Dakota Indians. ] Indians often grind up the hearts of their brave enemies into powder and swallow them, hoping to gain the courage of the dead.

It is common to eat the human heart, in order that the person who eats it will obtain the essence of the original owner of the heart, but it is not only the heart that is eaten because of this, as we have already mentioned.For example, in the two tribes of Sedora and Ngarigo in southeastern Australia, their warriors often ate the heads and feet of their slain enemies, thinking that in this way they would gain the qualities and courage of the dead.The Camilla Roy people of New South Wales eat the liver and heart of the brave man for his guts.There is also a popular superstition in Tongqin that the liver of the brave makes the man who eats the liver brave.With similar intentions, the Chinese swallowed the bile of recently executed bandits.The Dayaks of Sarawak often eat the palms and knees of the slain to strengthen their own hands and knees.The famous headhunters of the Toraki tribe of central Celebes drank the blood and ate the brains of their victims in order to make themselves brave.The Italons of the Philippine Islands drink the blood of their slain enemies and eat the back of their heads and their guts raw for their courage.For the same reason, another tribe in the Philippine Islands, the Efugao, suck the brains of their enemies.Likewise, the Kay of German New Guinea ate the brains of their enemies in order to gain their strength.Among the Kimbanda people of West Africa, when the new king succeeds to the throne, he kills a brave captive, and both the new king and the nobles eat his flesh to gain his strength and courage.The famous Zulu chief Matuana drank the bile of thirty chiefs (whose people he also destroyed), thinking it would make him strong.The Zulu believed that eating the middle of the forehead and eyebrows of an enemy would give them the guts to stare at the enemy.Before each expedition, the Minahasa people of Celebes took a handful of the hair of the slain enemy and soaked it in boiling water to extract courage; the warriors then drank the water of courage.In New Zealand "the chief is Atuya (god), but there are strong and weak gods; each god naturally tries to make himself a powerful god; the method adopted is to merge other people's spirits into himself; for example, a warrior killed When he was a chief, he immediately gouged out his eyes and swallowed them, because Atuya swears that the bottle is aㄉ窳鹏┚顺≡通劬野發虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虼虹起色链依拉阴而荹着一Turning the season and saying that Mu Chang leads  barium star wrestling  bo   animal husbandry  tuo  toad thin?

At this point, it is not difficult for us to understand why a savage wants to eat the flesh of animals or people he believes to be gods.Having eaten the flesh of God, he has a share in the attributes and power of God.God is the God of Ceres, and the grain is his main body; God is the God of Grapes, and the grape juice is his blood; therefore, believers eat the real flesh and blood of their God when they eat bread and drink wine.So drinking wine at the ceremony of a wine god like Dionysus wasn't hilarious, it was a solemn communion.But at last such a time has come that the sane man finds it hard to understand how a sane man can think that having eaten the bread and drinking the wine, he is eating the flesh and blood of God.Cicero said: "We call the corn Sirius, and the wine Bacchus, and we use only a common figure of speech; do you think there is any man so delusional that he thinks that what he eats is a god? "