l worship.

+1033+. While human sacrifice continued to a comparatively late period,
it was the ordinary sort of sacrifice that constituted the main part of
the ancient religious bond of society.[1866] In the course of time the
apparatus of sacrifice was elaborated--altars, temples, priests came
into existence, and an immense organization was built up. Sacrifices
played a part in all the affairs of life, took on various special
shapes, and received different names. They were all placatory--in every
case the object was to bring men into friendly relations with the god.
They were _expiatory_ when they were designed to secure forgiveness for
offenses, whether by bloody or by unbloody offerings, or by anything
that it was supposed would secure the favor of the deity. They were
performed when it was desired to procure some special benefit, for on
such occasions it was necessary that the deity should be well disposed
toward the supplicant; such _supplicatory_ or _impetratory_ sacrifices
have been among the most common--they touch the ordinary interests of
life, the main function of religious exercises in ancient times being to
procure blessings for the worshiper. These blessings secured, it was
necessary to give thanks for them--_eucharistic_ sacrifices formed a
part of the regular worship among all civilized peoples. When the crops
came in, it was felt to be proper to offer a portion, the first fruits,
to the deity, as among the Hebrews and many others, and, this custom
once established, the feeling naturally arose that to partake of the
fruits of the earth before the deity had received his part would be an
impious proceeding likely to call down on the clan or tribe the wrath of
the god. When a gift was made to a temple, since it was desirable that
the deity should accept it in a friendly spirit, a sacrifice was proper.
In the numerous cases in which some person or some object was to be
consecrated to the deity a sacrifice was necessary in order to secure
his good will; the ordination of temple-ministers, or the initiation of
the young into the tribe, demanded some _consecrative_ sacrifice. And,
on the other hand, there was equal necessity for a sacrifice, a
_deconsecrative_ or _liberative_ ceremony, when the relation of
consecration was to be terminated (as in the case of the Hebrew
Nazirite) or when a person was to be relieved from a taboo--in this
latter case the ceremony of cleansing and of sacrificing was intended to
sec