s
as sacrificing _Purusha_, the primeval male, supposed to be coeval with
the Creator. This idea is even more remarkably developed in the
_Tandya-brahmanas_, thus:

"The lord of creatures (_praja-pati_) _offered himself a
sacrifice for the gods_."

And again, in the _Satapatha-brahmana_:

"He who, knowing this, sacrifices the _Purusha-medha_, or
sacrifice of the primeval male, becomes everything."[181:1]

Prof. Monier Williams, from whose work on _Hindooism_ we quote the
above, says:

"Surely, in these mystical allusions to the sacrifice of a
representative man, we may perceive traces of the original
institution of sacrifice as a _divinely-appointed ordinance
typical of the one great sacrifice of the Son of God for the
sins of the world_."[182:1]

This idea of redemption from sin through the sufferings and death of a
Divine Incarnate Saviour, is simply the crowning-point of the idea
entertained by primitive man that the gods _demanded_ a sacrifice of
some kind, to atone for some sin, or avert some calamity.

In primitive ages, when men lived mostly on vegetables, they offered
only grain, water, salt, fruit, and flowers to the gods, to propitiate
them and thereby obtain temporal blessings. But when they began to eat
meat and spices, and drink wine, they offered the same; naturally
supposing the deities would be pleased with whatever was useful or
agreeable to themselves. They imagined that some gods were partial to
animals, others to fruits, flowers, etc. To the celestial gods they
offered _white_ victims at sunrise, or at open day. To the infernal
deities they sacrificed _black_ animals in the night. Each god had some
creature peculiarly devoted to his worship. They sacrificed a _bull_ to
Mars, a _dove_ to Venus, and to Minerva, a _heifer_ without blemish,
which had never been put to the yoke. If a man was too poor to sacrifice
a living animal, he offered an image of one made of bread.

In the course of time, it began to be imagined that the gods demanded
something more sacred as offerings or atonements for sin. This led to
the sacrifice of _human beings_, principally slaves and those taken in
war, then, their own children, even their most beloved "first-born." It
came to be an idea that every sin must have its prescribed amount of
punishment, _and that the gods would accept the life of one person as
atonement for the sins of others_. This idea prevailed even in Gre