in bark for purification.[370] The origin of
these customs is obscure; they go back to times and conditions for a
knowledge of which data are lacking--possibly to the early conception of
the sacredness of all natural objects.[371] It is less difficult to
explain the belief in the purifying power of fire. Its splendor and
utility caused it to be regarded as a god in India and Persia, and if it
was also destructive, it often consumed hurtful things. It was sacred,
and might, therefore, be a remover of impurity. Its employment for this
purpose is, however, not frequent;[372] it is oftener used to consume
corpses and other unclean things.

+200+. In the more developed religious rituals, sacrifice is a common
accompaniment of purifying ceremonies, the object being to procure the
forgiveness of the deity for the offense held to be involved in the
impurity; the conception of sin in such cases is sometimes physical,
sometimes moral, and the ceremony is always nearly allied to one of
atonement. In the Hebrew ritual a human bodily impurity and the
apparatus of the temple alike require a sin-offering.[373] In India the
bath of purification stood in close relation with a sacrifice.[374] In
Greece the two were associated in the cults of Apollo and Dionysos and
in ordinary worship in general.[375] Thus, men and gods take part in the
process of freeing the worshiper from the impure elements of life: the
man obeys the law of the ritual, and the god receives him into
association with the divine.

+201+. Ancient examples of the purification of a whole community are the
Hebrew ceremony on the annual day of atonement[376] (which is called in
the text a purification), and the Roman Lupercalia.[377] An elaborate
festival of this sort was observed every year by the Creeks;[378] it
lasted eight days, included various cathartic observances, and ended in
a physical and moral reconstruction of the nation. Among the Todas a
similar ceremony for the purification of a village exists.[379]

+202+. Ceremonies of _consecration_ are similar to those of
purification, only usually more formal and solemn. Entrance on a sacred
function, which involves special direct contact with a deity, requires
special preparation. Even before a simple act of prayer it was felt to
be proper to cleanse one's person;[380] how much more important was
bodily cleansing and other preparation for one who was chosen by the
community to represent it in its relations with the sup