1876.] Bajendralala Mitra— On Human Sacrifices in Ancient India. 93 



he can perceive nothing in it inconsistent or unworthy of belief. The 

 rescue, of course, is due to the intervention of Visvamitra, as supposed by 

 Wilson, and not to the efficacy of the hymns, but that was not intended to 

 form the most salient point of the story. 



Exception has been taken to the theory of the sacrifice having been 

 originally intended to be real on the ground of a story in the Aitareya 

 Brahmana which narrates that " the gods once killed a man for their sacrifice, 

 but that part in him which was fit for being made an offering, went out and 

 entered a horse" ; then the horse being killed, it went to an ox; and the ox 

 being killed, it went to a sheep ; and the sheep being killed, it went to a goat ; 

 and the goat being killed, it went to the earth ; and the gods, guarding the 

 earth, seized the rice, the produce thereof, which, made into cakes, formed 

 the best offering, and all the animals from which the sacrificial part had gone, 

 became unfit for being sacrificed, and no one should eat them. # This story, 



* I quote the entire passage from Hang's translation to enable the reader to jndge 

 for himself : 



" The gods killed a man for their sacrifice. But that part in him which was fit for 

 being made an offering, went out and entered a horse. Thence the horse became an 

 animal fit for being sacrificed. The gods then dismissed that man after that part which 

 was only fit for being offered had gone from him, whereupon he became deformed. 



" The gods killed the horse ; but the part fit for being sacrificed (the medha) went out 

 of it, and entered an ox ; thence the ox became an animal fit for being sacrificed. The 

 gods then dismissed (this horse) after the sacrificial part had gone from it, whereupon 

 it turned to a white deer. 



" The gods killed the ox ; but the part fit for being sacrificed went out of the ox, 

 and entered a sheep ; thence the sheep became fit for being sacrificed. The gods then 

 dismissed the ox, which turned to a gayal (Bos gaevusj . 



" The gods killed the sheep ; but the part fit for being sacrificed went out of the sheep, 

 and entered a goat ; thence the goat became fit for being sacrificed. The gods dismissed 

 the sheep, which turned to a camel. 



" The sacrificial part (the medha) remained for the longest time (longer than in the 

 other animals) in the goat ; thence is the goat among all these animals pre-eminently 

 fit for being sacrificed. 



" The gods killed the goat ; but the part fit for being sacrificed went out of it, and 

 entered the earth. Thence the earth is fit for being offered. The gods then dismissed 

 the goat, which turned to a S'arabha. 



" All those animals from which the sacrificial part had gone, are unfit for being 

 sacrificed ; thence one should not eat (their flesh). 



" After the sacrificial part had entered the earth, the gods surrounded it (so that no 

 escape was possible) ; it then turned to rice. "When they (therefore) divide the Puro- 

 dasa into parts, after they have killed the animal, then they do it, wishing " might not 

 animal sacrifice be performed with the sacrificial part (which is contained in the rice of 

 the Purodasa) ! might our sacrificial part be provided with the whole sacrificial essence 1" 

 The sacrificial animal of him who has such a knowledge becomes then provided with the 

 sacrificial part, with the whole sacrificial essence. The Purodasa (offered at the animal 

 sacrifice) is the animal which is killed. The chaff and straw of the rice of which it con- 



