with the gathering of the new crop.

+222+. A further extension of the conception of the sacredness of food
(whether or not of the first eating) appears in the Mexican custom (in
May and December) of making dough images of gods, the eating of which
sanctifies the worshiper;[425] here the god dwells in the bread of which
he is the giver.

+223+. In addition to the astral and agricultural festivals above
described there has been the observance of long periods to which a
religious significance was sometimes attached. The Egyptian Sothis
period[426] (of 1461 years), the Greek period of eight years
(oktaeteris), and the Mexican period of fifty-two years were
calendary--attempts to harmonize the lunar and solar years; in Mexico
the new cycle introduced a new religious era--a great ceremony was held
in which domestic fires were rekindled from the sacred fires. The Hebrew
jubilee period (of fifty years), apparently a late development from the
sabbatical year, was intended, among other things, to maintain the
division of landed property among the people--all alienated land was to
return finally to its original owner--participation in the blessings
bestowed by the national deity being conditioned on having a share in
the land, of which he was held to be the proprietor; the proposed
arrangement turned out, however, owing to changed social conditions, to
be impracticable.

+224+. It thus appears that ceremonies of various sorts have played a
very important part in religious life. They have been the most popularly
effective presentation of religious ideas, and they have preserved for
us religious conceptions that without them would have remained unknown.
Their social character has insured their persistence[427]--ceremonies of
to-day contain features that go back to the earliest known stratum of
organized religious life. While the motives that underlie them (desire
to propitiate supernatural Powers, demand for an objective presentation
of ideas, and love of amusement) are the same throughout the world,
their forms reflect the various climatic, economic, and general cultural
conditions of clans, tribes, and nations. They acquire consistency with
the organization of society; they tend to become more and more
elaborate, just as in other points social intercourse tends to produce
formal definiteness; they grow decrepit and have to be artificially
strengthened and revived; they lose their original meanings and must be
constantly reinte