uman life, the offering of human
beings to these last came as a matter of course. Their bodily appetites
were the same as those of men--they were fond of human flesh. Wherever
it was necessary to invoke their special aid this sort of offering was
presented: for the success of crops; to insure the stability of houses
and bridges[1848]; to avert or remove calamities, such as pestilence and
defeat in battle.

+1029+. While in the simpler societies human sacrifice was simply an
offering of food to the Powers, in later times it came to be conceived
of as the devotion of an object to the deity, and thus as a sign of
obedience and dependence. The offering of first-born children was a
recognition of the fact that the god was the giver of children as of
crops. The sacrifice of the dearest object, it was supposed, would
soften the heart of the deity. In some cases the person who was supposed
to be the occasion or source of misfortune was offered up. In general,
human sacrifice followed the lines of all other sacrifices and
disappeared when it became repugnant to humane and refined feelings.

+1030+. The testimonies to its existence are so numerous that we may
suppose it to have been universal among men.[1849] There is a trace of
its early existence in Egypt.[1850] In the Semitic region it is known to
have been practiced by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Moabites,
Hebrews, Arameans, and some Arabs.[1851] There is no evidence of the
practice in Babylonia; an indication of its existence in Assyria is
possibly found in an Old Testament passage.[1852] Its existence in early
times in India is held to be implied in the Rig-Veda.[1853] It appears
in the Brahmanic period also: a man (who had to be a Brahman or a
Warrior) was bought, allowed liberty and the satisfaction of all his
desires (except that sexual intercourse was forbidden) for one year, and
then ceremonially slain.[1854] It is only recently that the sacrifice of
children in the New Year festival at the mouth of the Ganges has been
abolished; and it is doubtful whether, in spite of the efforts of the
British Government, it has been completely put down among the wild
tribes, as the Gonds and the Khonds.[1855] The records of China, from
the eighth century B.C. onward are said to prove the existence of human
sacrifice.[1856] Among the ancient Scandinavians and Germans it was
frequent.[1857] In more recent times the practice is known either to
exist or to have existed in Polynesia