RITUAL BULLFIGHT—BISHOP 449 
likely, however, that the primitive idea was that of slaying the 
tutelary divinity of agriculture, symbolized as a bull, that his life 
and vigor might pass into the newly planted crops and bring about 
their abundant yield. 
An interesting detail of the custom, suggesting that a human sacri- 
fice may have formed part of the rite in earlier times, appears in 
connection with its occurrence in the extreme west of China, on the 
Tibetan border. Here a paper effigy of a youth, supposed to be the 
leader of the bull, is burnt,’ while the earthenware body of the animal 
is pounded to pieces, various auguries being drawn meanwhile from 
the color and posture of the bull and the costume of its leader. 
That the original motive in these practices was the promotion of 
fertility seems evident. This appears especially clearly in the form 
which the custom takes, or perhaps took, in Shanghai.’® Here the ox 
is constructed of variously colored pieces of paper, selected and 
pasted over a bamboo frame by a blind man. Auguries are drawn 
regarding the coming harvest, good or bad as one color or another 
predominates. Further, the effigy is filled with various sorts of grain 
which pour forth when it is smashed, typifying the abundant crops 
hoped for by the celebrants. The ceremony is held in honor ot 
Shén-nung, the ox-headed patron divinity of agriculture.1t Now 
Shén-nung would appear originally to have been the bull-god of 
fertility of the ancient non-Chinese folk of the Yangtze Valley, 
prayed to by them for rain and abundant crops. It not infrequently 
happens that beast-gods gradually assume human form while retain- 
ing their animal heads; the final stage in this metamorphosis is the 
appropriation of the human aspect in toto, the pristine shape, if it 
survives at all, being passed on to an attendant animal. Hence it is 
not impossible that, as in the Chinese forms of the rite cited above, 
both the ox and His youthful leader represent the god of agriculture 
in his earlier animal and later human forms, respectively. 
In all the foregoing examples the essential element is that of a 
struggle between man and beast—originally, it would seem, a beast- 
god, put to death that his vigor and reproductive power might trans- 
fuse themselves into the growing crops. In this form the custom 
apparently originated in that ancient culture area, embracing most 
of the temperate zone of the Eurasiatic continent, characterized by 
the growing of such cereals as wheat, barley, and millet, and where 
also oxen were first utilized in connection with field work. The 
®Rev. J. Hutson, “ Chinese life on the Tibetan foothills,’ The New China Review, Vol. 
II, pp. 470 et seq. See also on the same practice R. F. Johnston, op. cit., pp. 180 et seq. 
10 See The China Review, Shanghai, Vol. I, 1872-73, p. 62, query on “ beating the ox” 
at Shanghai; also ibid., p. 203 et seq., note by John Chalmers on the same; the latter 
says the ox should properly be made of clay, not paper. 
4 Regarding Shén-nung’s ox head, see, e. g., P. Henri Doré, “ Recherches sur les super- 
stitions en Chine,” Shanghai, 1911, Vol. X, p. 717, 
