ating efficacy in such
cases seems to have been due to the pleasure taken by the deity in the
proof of devotion given by the worshipers. In general, the communal meal
lost its early significance as time went on, and came at last to be
celebrated merely as a traditional mark of respect to the deity, or as a
social function; the belief in its efficacy, however (and sometimes
belief in its magical power), survived into a relatively late period.

+1047+. In one point, the death of the god, J. G. Frazer, while
accepting Smith's theory in general, diverges from his view. Smith
regards the death of the god as having been originally the sacrificial
death of the divine totem animal, with which later the god was
identified. Frazer[1893] (here following Mannhardt[1894]) finds its
origin in the death of the vegetation-spirit (the decay of vegetation),
which was and is celebrated in many places in Europe, and furnishes an
explanation of the myths of Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Dionysus, Demeter and
Proserpine, and Lityerses. This explanation is adopted and expanded by
Hubert and Mauss.[1895] So far as the mere fact of the sacrifice of a
divine being is concerned it might be accounted for by either of these
theories; but the numerous points of connection between the deities in
question and the ancient ideas concerning the death of vegetation make
the view of Mannhardt and Frazer the more probable. The kernel of the
original custom is not expiation but celebration or worship; the myths
are dramatic developments of the simple old idea. Frazer suggests that
the spirit or god, supposed to be enfeebled by age, was slain by the
worshipers in order that a more vigorous successor might infuse new life
into the world--an explanation that is possible but cannot be considered
as established or as probable.[1896] However this may be, it was at a
relatively late period that the conception of communion was introduced
into ceremonies connected with the death of a deity. Originally the
grain, identified with the god, was eaten in order to acquire his
strength;[1897] such seems to be the purpose in the Mexican ceremonies
in which paste images of the deity were eaten by all the people. With
the growth of moral and spiritual conceptions of worship such communal
eating came naturally to be connected with a sense of union of soul with
the deity, as we find in the higher religions, but still without the
feeling that reconciliation and unity were effected throug