ossible be completely exterminated, but when this was impossible
they must dwell apart and not pollute by contact of their persons,
or in any other way, the sacred soil on which the gods dwelt, nor
the persons of those who became part of the substance of the god by
participation in the sacrificial meal. For this reason the plebeians
had to live outside the Roman city, which was all sacred ground, and
the Sudras and modern impure castes have to live outside the village,
which is similarly sacred as the abode of the earth-goddess in her
form of the goddess of the land of that village. For the same reason
their contact had to be avoided by those who belonged to the village
and were united to the goddess by partaking of the crops which she
brought forth on her land. As already seen, the belief existed that the
life and qualities could be communicated by contact, and in this case
the worshippers would assimilate by contact the life of a god hostile
to their own. In the same manner, as shown by M. Salomon Reinach in
_Cults, Myths and Religions_, all the weapons, clothes and material
possessions of the enemy were considered as impure, perhaps because
they also contained part of the life of a hostile god. As already seen,
[238] a man's clothing and weapons were considered to contain part
of his life by contact, and since the man was united to the god by
partaking of the sacrificial feast, all the possessions of the enemy
might be held to participate in the life of the hostile god, and hence
they could not be preserved, nor taken by the victors into their own
houses or dwellings. This was the offence which Achan committed when
he hid in his tent part of the spoils of Jericho; and in consequence
Jehovah ceased to be with the children of Israel when they went up
against Ai, that is ceased to be in them, and they could not stand
before the enemy. Achan and his family were stoned and his property
destroyed by fire and the impurity was removed. For the same reason the
ancient Gauls and Germans destroyed all the spoils of war or burned
them, or buried them in lakes where they are still found. At a later
stage the Romans, instead of destroying the spoils of war, dedicated
them to their own gods, perhaps as a visible sign of the conquest and
subjection of the enemy's gods; and they were hung in temples or on
oak-trees, where they could not be touched except in the very direst
need, as when Rome was left without arms after Cannae. Subseque