MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
among a people so comparatively high in the culture scale 
as the ancient Hebrews. 
Especially when the spirits of cultivated plants, and 
particularly of certain cereals, came to be thought of as 
having human form, did the ceremonial shedding of human 
blood, often in very ‘cruel ways, seem essential to primitive 
man. Sometimes the victim was regarded as the in- 
carnation of the god himself. Many peoples had the idea 
of a dying god who gives his life for his people, and traces 
of it still persist in the folk tales and beliefs and customs 
of the peasant population of Europe and Asia. The Aztecs 
of Mexico carried it to an exceptionally high pitch of 
dramatic intensity, characterized by the most brilliant 
pageantry. 
The offering of human sacrifices in connection with 
agricultural operations belongs essentially to the Neolithic 
stage of man’s development. One of the causes which 
led to its abandon- 
ment in more ad- 
vanced regions was 
the domestication of 
animals which could 
be substituted for 
human beings in these 
bloody rites. We see 
a reflection of this in 
the familiar account 
of Abraham and Isaac 
and the “ram caught 
in a thicket by his 
Fic. Ths Staghorn pickaxes used for mining horns.” The persist- 
face Neate omg aon Denese | Vertee ab ae (engi 
in certain regions, like 
Mexico, probably resulted in no small part from the lack 
of suitable domestic animals. 
Among many of the more advanced planting peoples of 
the New Stone Age grew up the idea of a divinity called 
[ 248 ] 
