138 Wilber Theodore Elmore 



bloodthirsty, and so blood is shed before them. The more terrible 

 ones must have rivers of blood running before them.*^ Often the 

 pujari drinks some of the blood. The reason for this is that the 

 pujari for the time represents the goddess, and through him her 

 desire for blood is satisfied.*^ In the case of some of the Saktis, 

 blood is poured into their mouths. Bloody rice is scattered about 

 the fields by farmers hoping that the devils will thus be satisfied 

 and not molest the crop. It is very evident that it is blood which 

 the spirits want. 



Bishop Whitehead** thinks that the explanation commonly 

 given, that the god takes the essence while the worshiper eats the 

 body, is not satisfactory. He suggests that this idea may be a 

 very recent addition from the Roman Catholic doctrine of trans- 

 substantiation. Neither explanation seems really necessary, so 

 far as the sacrifices of animals are concerned. It is blood which 

 the spirit wants and blood which is offered to it. It is quite prob- 

 able that originally it was the life as symbolized by the blood 

 which was desired. It is the giving of life to redeem life. The 

 blood is the life in the thought of these people as well as in that 

 of the Hebrews, and when the fowl or animal is beheaded and 

 the blood is poured out, the desire for life is satisfied. 



When we go further and ask why life is desired by the spirit, 



*2 In one place in the Nalamalli Hills the blood is poured into a stone 

 trough in front of the image. When a dog comes and drinks it they 

 think the goddess has entered the dog and is satisfied. This is one of the 

 more terrible devils and is worshiped by the thieves. There is probably 

 some connection between such worship and that of Kali by the Thugs. 

 See The Confessions of a Thug, by Colonel Meadows Taylor, London, 

 1906, p. 27. 



*3 In such worship as that of Ankamma described on page 24, I have 

 tried to connect the dressing as a woman and riding in the midst of im- 

 paled animals with such a ceremony as carrying the vitals in the mouth 

 for the purpose of frightening away other spirits. I have not been able 

 to establish the point, however. The entire testimony is to the effect 

 that the pujari dressed as a woman represents the goddess, that he is for 

 the time the incarnation of the goddess, and so she is getting the benefit 

 of the blood which he drinks, and the impaled animals are sacrifices 

 to her. 



^"^ Madras Government Museum, Bulletin, V, no. 3, p. 179. 



138 



