blessings became too numerous, than to return a certain number of
them to the giver, the god of Moloch? It is true that by this process
children were born only to be delivered over to the ravages of the
fire-god, but by it, was not their deity both served and appeased at
the same time that population was kept within the bounds of subsistence?
That great numbers were thus sacrificed is only too apparent from the
accounts in the Jewish scriptures--Abraham's acts and those of Jephtha
being examples of the manner in which this god was propitiated.

In Micah, vi. chap., 7th verse, occurs an interrogation which furnishes
something more than a hint of the practice among the Jews of child
sacrifice. "Shall I give my first born for my transgressions, the fruit
of my body for the sin of my soul?"

Although there is sufficient evidence to prove the enormous extent to
which the practice of child sacrifice prevailed among the Jews, it
is believed that much more proof would be found, had it not, in later
times, with a view to concealing the extent of this practice, been
expunged from their sacred writings. Moloch was to the Jews what Siva
came to be to the Hindoos, namely, the Terrible. It is plain, however,
that Siva was not formerly feared in India, but next to Vishnu was the
best beloved of all their gods. Siva was originally the androgyne god
who was not only the Destroyer, but the beneficent Regenerator and
purifier. It was the cold of winter and the heat of the sun. It was a
conception which was a direct outgrowth of Nature worship or of that
religious idea which was portrayed by a mother and her child.

The conception involved in sacrifice seems to be that of a payment
for services rendered, or desired. The Amazulus, when going to battle,
sacrifice to the manes of their ancestors, who, as older branches of
the tree of life, appear to constitute their god-idea. This is done
that their gods "may have no cause of complaint, because they have made
amends to them and made them bright." On appearing before the enemy they
say: "Can it be, since we have made amends to the Amadhlozi, that they
will say we have wronged them by anything?"(165)

165) Viscount Amberley, Analysis of Religious Belief, vol. i., p. 32.

At a certain stage in human history the various peoples of the globe
depended upon excessive numbers for their prosperity, hence the most
precious offering to the god of pro-creation was that of human victims.

I