ctim represented the divinity, slain that his life
might be revived in vigour. The earth was sprinkled with his blood and
fed with his flesh in order to fertilise it, and possibly the
worshippers partook sacramentally of the flesh. Propitiatory holocausts
of human victims had taken the place of the slain representative of a
god, but their value in promoting fertility was not forgotten. The
sacramental aspect of the rite is perhaps to be found in Pliny's words
regarding "the slaying of a human being as a most religious act and
eating the flesh as a wholesome remedy" among the Britons.[820] This may
merely refer to "medicinal cannibalism," such as still survives in
Italy, but the passage rather suggests sacramental cannibalism, the
eating of part of a divine victim, such as existed in Mexico and
elsewhere. Other acts of cannibalism are referred to by classical
writers. Diodorus says the Irish ate their enemies, and Pausanias
describes the eating the flesh and drinking the blood of children among
the Galatian Celts. Drinking out of a skull the blood of slain
(sacrificial) enemies is mentioned by Ammianus and Livy, and Solinus
describes the Irish custom of bathing the face in the blood of the slain
and drinking it.[821] In some of these cases the intention may simply
have been to obtain the dead enemy's strength, but where a sacrificial
victim was concerned, the intention probably went further than this. The
blood of dead relatives was also drunk in order to obtain their virtues,
or to be brought into closer _rapport_ with them.[822] This is analogous
to the custom of blood brotherhood, which also existed among the Celts
and continued as a survival in the Western Isles until a late date.[823]

One group of Celtic human sacrifices was thus connected with primitive
agricultural ritual, but the warlike energies of the Celts extended the
practice. Victims were easily obtained, and offered to the gods of war.
Yet even these sacrifices preserved some trace of the older rite, in
which the victim represented a divinity or spirit.

Head-hunting, described in classical writings and in Irish texts, had
also a sacrificial aspect. The heads of enemies were hung at the
saddle-bow or fixed on spears, as the conquerors returned home with
songs of victory.[824] This gruesome picture often recurs in the texts.
Thus, after the death of Cuchulainn, Conall Cernach returned to Emer
with the heads of his slayers strung on a withy. He placed each