AN ECCLESIASTICAL SYSTEM AS A SOCIAL BOND. 771 



likely still to have it in great measure. Elsewhere (Study of 

 Sociology, Chap. V) I have, for another purpose, exemplified 

 the extreme resistance to change offered by Ecclesiastical 

 Institutions, and this more especially in respect of all things 

 pertaining to the ecclesiastical organization itself. Here let 

 me add a further series of illustrations. 



The ancient Mexicans had &quot; flint knives used in the sacri 

 fices.&quot; In San Salvador, the sacrificer had &quot; a knife of flint, 

 with which he opened the breast of the victim.&quot; Among the 

 Chibchas, again, when a boy was sacrificed, &quot; they killed him 

 with a reed knife;&quot; and at the present time among the 

 Karens, the sacrificial hog offered to deified ancestors, &quot;is 

 not killed with a knife or spear ; but a sharpened bamboo is 

 forced into it.&quot; In many other cases the implements used 

 for sacred purposes are either surviving tools of tho most 

 archaic types, or else of relatively ancient types ; as in pagan 

 Rome where &quot; down to the latest times copper alone might 

 be used, e.g. for the sacred plough and the shear-knife of the 

 priests,&quot; and where also an ancient dress was used during 

 religious ceremonies. Among the Nagas, the fire 



for roasting a sacrificed animal is &quot; freshly kindled by means 

 of rubbing together two dry pieces of wood ; &quot; and on like 

 occasions among the Todas, &quot; although fire may be readily 

 procured from the Mand, a sacred fire is created by the 

 rubbing of sticks.&quot; The Damaras keep a sacred fire always 

 burning ; and should this be accidentally extinguished &quot; the 

 fire is re-lit in the primitive way namely, by friction.&quot; Even 

 in Europe there long continued a like connexion of ideas and 

 practices. Says Peschel, speaking of the fire-drill, &quot;this 

 mode of kindling fire was retained till quite recently in 

 Germany, for popular superstition attributed miraculous 

 power to a fire generated by this ancient method ; &quot; and in 

 the Western Isles of Scotland at the end of the seventeenth 

 century, they still obtained fire for sacrificial purposes by the 

 friction of wood in cases of plague arid murrain. So 



is it with the form of speech. Beyond such examples as the 

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