prinkled on the seed, and homage is paid to a sacred stone or some
similar object.

+134+. In more civilized agricultural communities these ceremonies
persist in attenuated form. There is a sacrifice of first-born animals
to a deity and an offering of the first fruits of the field; and as
children, no less than crops, are the gift of the gods, whose bounty
must be recognized, it is not surprising to find that, along with the
first fruits of the field, first-born children are sometimes sacrificed
to the deity. Such a custom is reported as existing or having existed in
New South Wales, Florida, East Africa, heathen Russia, the Fiji Islands,
and Northern India.[269] A trace of the custom among the early Hebrews
is, probably, to be recognized in the provision of the Old Testament
code that the first-born children are to be redeemed by an animal
sacrifice.[270]

+135+. In the course of time many ceremonies grew up in connection with
the procuring and housing of crops and other supplies. In Australia the
men of the clan charged with assuring any sort of food were unarmed and
fasted during their ceremony.[271] Among the Kondyan plowing and sowing
are solemn seasons, an auspicious day is chosen, and there are
religious songs and choruses.[272] For the Hos of Northeastern India the
harvest home is a great festival, held with sacrifice and prayer (though
also with great license of manners).[273] A dim conception of law
underlies all these procedures. The law is sometimes natural, as in
imitative processes, sometimes religious, as when blood is employed or
the agency of religious official persons is called in.

+136+. The economical importance of rain has led to various
quasi-scientific and magical devices for securing it, and to the rise of
professional rain makers. The methods commonly employed are mimic
representations of rainfall or of a storm.[274] The Australian Arunta
have a rain clan whose function is to bring the desired supply by
nonsacred dancing festivals and sacred ceremonies. A more advanced
method is to dip a stone, as rain-god, into a stream.[275] Certain
American tribes assign the duty of rain making to secret societies or to
priests.

+137+. All such economical ceremonies disappear with the progress of
knowledge, though traces of them linger long in civilized communities.
Messrs. Spencer and Gillen note the gradual disappearance of the
economical and magical aspect of ceremonies in parts of Australia, and a