hese gatherings among the Maidu
and other tribes is the presence of a clown who mimics the acts and
words of the dancers and performs knavish tricks; the origin of this
feature of the dances is not clear. In all such ceremonies the tendency
to regulate the details of religious performances is apparent, and such
regulation is found in so many parts of the world that it may be
regarded with probability as universal.

+1058+. For the ancient national religions we have the fullest details
in the case of the Hindus and the Hebrews. The Hindu sacrificial ritual
is described by MM. Hubert and Mauss;[1913] the Hebrew procedure is
given in the later sections of the Pentateuch.[1914] The Egyptian ritual
also appears to have been elaborate, including much music.[1915] These
show methods similar to those described above, and probably the same
general modes of procedure were followed in Babylonia and Persia, though
of the ritual in these countries only slight notices have been handed
down.[1916] The great Chinese Imperial sacrifices are described by H.
Blodget.[1917]

+1059+. These national systems exhibit a gradual quiet enlargement of
the ritual resulting from increasing specialization in the conception of
sin and forgiveness and in the functions of religious officials. A
different sort of development appears in the rites of the cults that
sprang up on the ruins of the old faiths--Greek Mysteries, Mithraism,
Isisism, Christianity. These were all redemptive religions, highly
individualistic and intense, efforts to infuse into old forms the ideas
concerning moral purity, union with the deity, immortality, and future
salvation that had arisen in the Graeco-Roman world by the natural
growth of thought and the intermingling of the various existing schemes
of religious life. They are all marked by a tendency toward elaborate
organization, a sharp differentiation from the national cults, and
purificatory and other ceremonies of initiation. The differentiation was
most definite in Christianity, the ritual was most highly developed in
the other movements. In the Greek public Mysteries[1918] and in those of
Mithra[1919] there were (besides ablutions) the old communal meals,
processions, striking dramatic performances, and brilliant effects of
light and music, and in Mithraism trials of courage for the neophyte
after the manner of the old savage initiations. The ceremonies in the
Isis cult were less sensational, more quiet and dignified.[19