104: CEREMONIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



bishop of Paris, preached against bad people wlio &quot; put their 

 faith in presents, and say that none will remain rich during 

 the year if he has not had a gift on Xew Year s day.&quot; Not 

 withstanding ecclesiastical interdicts, however, the custom 

 survived through the Middle Ages down to modern times. 

 Moreover, there simultaneously developed kindred periodic 

 ceremonies; such as, in France, the giving of Easter eggs. 

 And present-makings of these kinds have undergone 

 changes like those which we traced in other kinds of pres 

 ent-makings: beginning as voluntary, they have become in 

 a measure compulsory. 



377. Spontaneously made among primitive men to 

 one whose goodwill is desired, the gift thus becomes, as soci 

 ety evolves, the originator of many things. 



To the political head, as his power grows, presents are 

 prompted partly by fear of him and partly by the wish for 

 his aid; and such presents, at first propitiatory only in vir 

 tue of their intrinsic worth, grow to be propitiatory as ex 

 pressions of loyalty: from the last of which comes present- 

 giving as a ceremonial, and from the first of which comes 

 present-giving as tribute, eventually changing into taxes. 

 Simultaneously, the supplies of food &c., placed on the 

 grave of the dead man to please his ghost, developing into 

 larger and repeated offerings at the grave of the distin 

 guished dead man, and becoming at length sacrifices on the 

 altar of the god, differentiate in an analogous way: the 

 present of meat, drink, or clothes, at first supposed to beget 

 goodwill because actually useful, becomes, by implication, 

 significant of allegiance. Hence, making the gift grows 

 into an act of worship irrespective of the value of the thing 

 given ; while, as affording sustenance to the priest, the gift 

 makes possible the agency by which the worship is con 

 ducted. From oblations originate Church revenues. 



Thus we unexpectedly come upon further proof that the 

 control of ceremony precedes the political and ecclesiastical 



