PRESENTS. 97 



their secondary meaning gives that ceremonial character to 

 sacrifice which still survives. 



374. And now we come upon a remarkable sequence. 

 As the present to the ruler eventually develops into political 

 revenue, so the present to the god eventually develops into 

 ecclesiastical revenue. 



Let us set out with that earliest stage in which no eccle 

 siastical organization exists. At this stage the present to 

 the supernatural being is often shared between him and 

 those who worship him. While the supernatural being is 

 propitiated by the gift of food, there is, by eating together, 

 established between him and his propitiators a bond of 

 union: implying protection on the one side and allegiance 

 on the other. The primitive notion that the nature of a 

 thing, inhering in all its parts, is acquired by those who 

 consume it, and that therefore those who consume two parts 

 of one thing, acquire from it some nature in common that 

 same notion which initiates the practice of forming a broth 

 erhood by partaking of one another s blood, which instigates 

 the funeral rite of blood-offering, and which gives strength 

 to the claims established by joining in the same meal, 

 originates this prevalent usage of eating part of that which 

 is presented to the ghost or to the god. In some places the 

 people at large participate in the offering; in some places 

 the medicine-men or priests only; and in some places the 

 last practice is habitual while the first is occasional, as in 

 ancient Mexico, where communicants &quot; who had partaken 

 of the sacred food were engaged to serve the god during 

 the subsequent year.&quot; 



Here the fact which concerns us is that from the presents 

 thus used, there arises a maintenance for the sacerdotal 

 class. Among the Kukis the priest, to pacify the angry 

 deity who has made some one ill, takes, it may be a fowl, 

 which he says the god Tequires, and pouring its blood as an 

 offering on the ground while muttering praises, &quot; then 



