An Introduction to the History of Religion

Cover An Introduction to the History of Religion
An Introduction to the History of Religion
Jevons Frank Byron
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To this day, survivals of this state of things may be found : the Kureks at irregular times slaughter a reindeer or a dog, put its head on a pole facing east, and, mentioning no name, say, " This for Thee : grant me a blessing. " ^ But when polytheismT grew up, when one clan worshipped several gods, it would be necessary to distinguish. Especially, when the same animal might be offered to difi'erent gods, would there be nothing to guarantee that the right god passed into the altar. Hence the ad...vantage of having different names for the different gods, and the custom of invoking a god by his name before slaying the victim that was intended for him. Those who did not know the name of the god could not offer him a sacrifice, could not enter into communion with him, could not gain his ear for any prayer. Hence the profound and successful secrecy with which the name of the tutelary deity of Eome was guarded, that no foe might induce him to abandon Eome. Finally, we may note that savages generally believe that knowledge of a man's name confers power over the man himself; a man's name — or, for that matter, a god's name — is part of himself in the savage's opinion, and consequently, just as hanging clothes on a sacred tree places the wearer in contact with the divinity of the tree, just as writing a name on temple-walls puts the owner of the name in continual union with the deity of the temple, so for early men the knowledge, invocation, and vain repeti- tion of the deity's name constitutes in itself an actual, if mystic, union with the deity named.

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