ful whether in the passages just cited anything
more is meant than that the fire, as a creation of Ahura Mazda and
sacred to him, is for his sake worthy of reverence and through him a
source of blessing. Thus Yacna xvii is a hymn in honor of Ahura Mazda
and all his creatures, among which are mentioned the law of Zarathustra,
the fire (and five different fires are named), the soul of the ox, and
pure deeds, along with the Amesha-Spentas, the heavenly bodies, and good
men. This collection shows vagueness in the conception of the divine and
the sacred, and, to say the least, leaves it uncertain whether the
singer does not think of the fire simply as a symbol of the Supreme God.

+321+. The relation of fire to the gods, and especially its use in
sacrifice, have led to a number of religious ceremonies in which it
plays a principal part.[595] Certain fires must be kindled by specially
appointed sacred persons: among the Todas of Southern India, when a new
dairy is visited or an old dairy is reconsecrated;[596] among the
Lacandones of Central America, on the occasion of the renewal of the
incense-bowls;[597] in the Peruvian temple at the feast of Raymi, when
the flame was intrusted to the care of the Virgins of the Sun, and was
to be kept up during the year;[598] in the temples of Hestia and Vesta;
throughout Greece, when the fires had been polluted by the presence of
the Persians, it was ordered that they should be put out and rekindled
from the sacred fire at Delphi.[599]

+322+. The purificatory power of fire was, doubtless, a fact of early
observation.

+323+. As the physical means of sacrifice, fire acquired a certain
symbolic significance; in the Hebrew ritual "fire-offerings" are
regarded as specially important. By Carthaginians, Moabites, and Hebrews
children were devoted to the deity by fire.[600]

+324+. By reason of its brightness fire connects itself in religious
imagery with the sun, with lightning, and with light in general, and so
appears frequently as a representation of the glory of the deity.[601]

+325+. Light is sometimes regarded as an independent thing, and as
sacred.[602]

WINDS

+326+. Traces of an early cult of the physical wind may be found,
perhaps, in certain customs that survive in modern communities; as, for
example, in the offering of food to the wind that it may be placated and
do no harm.[603] The belief of sailors that wind may be called up by
whistling rests on a process of imitativ