are still "spitting
stones" in the north of Scotland. When bargains are made in rural
districts, hands are spat upon before they are shaken. The first money
taken each day by fishwives and other dealers is spat upon to ensure
increased drawings. Brand, who refers to various spitting customs,
quotes _Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft_ regarding the saliva cure for
king's evil, which is still, by the way, practised in the Hebrides.
Like Pliny, Scot recommended ceremonial spitting as a charm against
witchcraft.[54] In China spitting to expel demons is a common
practice. We still call a hasty person a "spitfire", and a calumniator
a "spit-poison".

The life principle in trees, &c., as we have seen, was believed to
have been derived from the tears of deities. In India sap was called
the "blood of trees", and references to "bleeding trees" are still
widespread and common. "Among the ancients", wrote Professor Robertson
Smith, "blood is generally conceived as the principle or vehicle of
life, and so the account often given of sacred waters is that the
blood of the deity flows in them. Thus as Milton writes:

Smooth Adonis from his native rock
Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded.

_Paradise Lost_, i, 450.

The ruddy colour which the swollen river derived from the soil at a
certain season was ascribed to the blood of the god, who received his
death wound in Lebanon at that time of the year, and lay buried beside
the sacred source."[55]

In Babylonia the river was regarded as the source of the life blood
and the seat of the soul. No doubt this theory was based on the fact
that the human liver contains about a sixth of the blood in the body,
the largest proportion required by any single organ. Jeremiah makes
"Mother Jerusalem" exclaim: "My liver is poured upon the earth for the
destruction of the daughter of my people", meaning that her life is
spent with grief.

Inspiration was derived by drinking blood as well as by drinking
intoxicating liquors--the mead of the gods. Indian magicians who drink
the blood of the goat sacrificed to the goddess Kali, are believed to
be temporarily possessed by her spirit, and thus enabled to
prophesy.[56] Malayan exorcists still expel demons while they suck the
blood from a decapitated fowl.[57]

Similar customs were prevalent in Ancient Greece. A woman who drank
the blood of a sacrificed lamb or bull uttered prophetic sayings.[58]