that human flesh goes down
The low-caste man's aesophagus!
I suspect that we should have to go back to the days of the cave-man
to find the first lover of the flesh-pots who put a taboo upon meat,
and promised supernatural favors to all who would exercise
self-control, and instead of consuming their meat themselves, would
bring it and lay it upon the sacred griddle, or altar, where the god
might come in the night-time and partake of it. Certainly, at any
rate, there are few religions of record in which such devices do not
appear. The early laws of the Hebrews are more concerned with
delicatessen for the priests than with any other subject whatever.
Here, for example, is the way to make a Nazarite:
He shall offer his offering up to the Lord, one he lamb of
the first year without blemish for a burnt offering, and one
ewe lamb of the first year without blemish for a sin
offering, and one ram without blemish for peace offerings,
and a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour
mingled with oil, and wafers of unleavened bread anointed
with oil, and their meat offerings.
And the law goes on to instruct the priests to take certain choice
parts and "wave them for a wave offering before the Lord: this is holy
for the priest." What was done with the other portions we are not
told; but earlier in this same "Book of Numbers" we find the general
law that
Every offering of all the holy things of the children of
Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his. And
every man's hallowed things shall be his: whatsoever any man
giveth to the priest, it shall be his.
In the same way we are told by Viscount Amberley that the priests of
Ceylon first present the gifts to the god, and then eat them. Among
the Parsees, when a man dies, the relatives must bring four new robes
to the priests; if they do this, the priests wear the robes; if they
fail to do it, the dead man appears naked before the judgment-throne.
The devotees are instructed that "he who performs this rite succeeds
in both worlds, and obtains a firm footing in both worlds." Among the
Buddhists, the followers give alms to the monks, and are told
specifically what advantages will thereby accrue to them. In the
Aitareyo Brahmanam of the Rig-Veda we read
He who, knowing this, sacrifices according to this rite, is
born from the womb of Agni and the offerings, participates
in the natur
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