e
part of the category of substituted ceremonies and sacrifices are
based on this confusion between similarity and identity. Thus when the
Hindus put four pieces of stick into a pumpkin and call it a goat,
they do not mean to cheat the god to whom it is offered, but fancy
that when they have made a likeness of a goat and called it a goat,
it is a goat, at any rate for the purpose of sacrifice. And when the
Jains, desiring to eat after sunset against the rule of their religion,
place a lamp under a sieve and call it the sun, and eat by it, they are
acting on the same principle and think they have avoided committing
a sin. A Baiga should go to his wedding on an elephant, but as he
cannot obtain a real elephant, two wooden cots are lashed together
and covered with blankets, with a black cloth trunk in front, and
this arrangement passes muster for an elephant. A small gold image
of a cat is offered to a Brahman in expiation for killing a cat,
silver eyes are offered to the goddess to save the eyes of a person
suffering from smallpox, a wisp of straw is burnt on a man's grave as
a substitute for cremating the body, a girl is married to an image
of a man made of _kusha_ grass, and so on. In rites where blood is
required vermilion is used as a substitute for blood; on the other
hand castes which abstain from flesh sometimes also decline to eat
red vegetables and fruits, because the red colour is held to make
them resemble and be equivalent to blood. These beliefs survive in
religious ceremonial long after the hard logic of facts has dispelled
them from ordinary life. [133] Thus when an image of a god was made
it was at once the god and contained part of his life. Primitive man
had no idea of an imitation or an image nor of a lifeless object, and
therefore could not conceive of the representation being anything else
than the god. Only in later times was some ceremony of conveying life
to the image considered requisite. The prohibition of sculpture among
the Jews and of painting among the Muhammadans was based on this view,
[134] because sculptures and paintings were not considered as images or
representations, but as living beings or gods, and consequently false
gods. The world-wide custom of making an image of a man with intent
to injure him arises from the same belief. Since primitive man could
conceive neither of an imitation nor of an inanimate object, the image
of a man was to his view the man; there was nothing else which