Chapter 49 Killing the Divine Animals: Killing the Condors

In previous chapters, we talked about the custom of killing and eating the god of corn in many societies that have developed to live mainly on agriculture, or in the original form of the god of corn, such as corn, rice, etc., or It is to kill and eat in the guise of animals and people.We shall also show that hunting or nomadic tribes, like agricultural peoples, have the custom of killing their idols.Among the fetishes or gods (if they were worthy of being revered as gods) that hunters and shepherds worshiped and killed, many were simple animals that did not embody other supernatural beings.Our first example is that of the California Indians, who inhabit a fertile country, in a sunny and temperate climate, but who are almost at their most savage.The Akachman people worship the big eagle, and they have a grand festival every year called Pines (meaning the bird meeting), which is a religious ceremony held for the big eagle.After the festival is selected, it will be announced on the evening before the celebration, and a dedicated temple site (Vanguech) will be prepared immediately, which seems to be a circular or oval site surrounded by wooden fences. The skin of a coyote or coyote raised up, signifies the god Chinniq.After the temple grounds are prepared, a solemn team is formed to bring the birds into the temple grounds and place them on the specially built altar.Then all the young women, married or not, ran around in front of the altar like crazy, some in one direction and some in the other, while the old people watched quietly.The headmen have their faces painted and feathered and dance around the birds they worship.When these ceremonies were done, they took the bird and carried it to the main temple grounds, and all the people joined in this magnificent procession; the chiefs went ahead with singing and dancing.When they reached the temple grounds, they killed the bird so as not to shed a drop of blood.The skin is peeled off whole and preserved with the feathers as a relic, or as festive clothing (called Paelt).The bird's body was buried in a hole in the temple grounds. Elderly women gathered around the grave, weeping and throwing all kinds of plant seeds and food on the grave. They cried, "Why did you run? Come with us." Wouldn't it be better to be together? You can make pinot as well as we can. If you don't run away, you won't be Pines." And so on.After the ceremony, the dance continued for three days and three nights.It is said that Paynes was a woman who ran into the mountains, and the god Chinigchinich turned her into a bird.They believed that although the bird was killed every year, she could still be resurrected and return to her mountain home.And, they felt, "she multiplied as many times as she was killed. All the chiefs hold the festival of Pines every year, and they all firmly believe that all the birds killed and sacrificed at the festival are the same female bird."

The claim of the Californians to reproduce from a bird is remarkable, and helps to explain their motives for killing the divine bird.The notion that the life of a species is distinct from the life of an individual, which seems obvious to us, seems elusive to the California savage.He cannot realize that species life is different from individual life, therefore, the dangers and disasters that threaten and eventually destroy individual life will also befall species life.Apparently, he felt that isolated species would age and die like individuals, and that some step must be taken to save a species he regarded as a god from extinction.The only way he could imagine avoiding disaster was to kill a member of the race.The tide of life is still running vigorously in the veins of this member, and has not yet become stagnant in the swamps of old age.By diverting life from one channel in this way, he felt, it would flow freely again into a new channel; in other words, the slain animal would rise to a new life, with the freshness and vigor of youth.Such reasoning seems to us evidently absurd; and the same is true of this custom.It can also be mentioned here that the Salmon people's understanding of individual life and racial life is also confused.Every family worshiped a certain animal as a god, but they believed that one of these animals died, such as an owl; body".