ing); the application of sand, dung, bark, and similar things;
exposure to fire; incantation and sacrifice; and fasting. In all these
cases the virtue lies either in a sacred thing or act that has the
quality of dissipating the mysterious defilement present, or in the
removal or avoidance of the defiling thing; it is frequently required
that the application of the cleansing substance be made by a sacred
person, whose character adds potency to the act. The use of water for
ceremonial purification has been, and is, practiced all over the world,
alike by savages and by civilized peoples:[365] the newborn child,
ritually impure by reason of the mystery of birth, is bathed or
sprinkled; before the performance of a sacred act the officiator must
bathe;[366] numerous ablutions are prescribed in the Old Testament;
similar usages obtained among the Egyptians, the Hindus and the
Persians, the Greeks and the Romans, the Chinese and the Japanese, the
Mexicans and the Peruvians, and other peoples.

+198+. These usages have arisen doubtless from observation of the
natural cleansing power of water and other things in conjunction with
the belief in their sacred character. Adopted by the higher religions
they have been more or less spiritualized by the infusion into them of
ideas of penitence, forgiveness of sin, and regeneration--so in India,
Persia, and Peru. Christian baptism seems to have come from Jewish
proselyte baptism:[367] the proselyte was by immersion in water
symbolically cleansed from sin and introduced into a new religious life,
and such was the significance of the rite practiced by John, though his
surname "the Baptizer" probably indicates that he gave it a broader and
deeper meaning; he overstepped national bounds, receiving Jews as well
as non-Jews.[368] Moslem ritual requires ablutions before the stated
prayers and at certain other times; every mosque has its tank of water
for the convenience of worshipers.

+199+. Where water cannot be had, usage in Islam and in some forms of
Christianity permits the substitution of sand or dust--both thought to
have cleansing power. Similar power is ascribed to urine and dung of
domestic animals.[369] Such usages may originate in a belief in the
physical cleansing efficacy of those substances (the Toda women employ
dried buffalo's dung in household cleaning), or they may be supposed to
derive their efficacy from the sacredness of the animals. The Todas also
make much use of a certa