RELIGION AMONG TttE PEOPLE OF ASIA MINOR. 153 



Hedjaz railway, designed to carry pilgrims to Mecca ; yet at the 

 Courban of last year I heard a preacher addressing a thousand 

 men make a charge that half had hidden their sacrificial skins 

 and half liad sold them for personal gain ; some of the meat 

 should be distributed among the poor and the friends of the 

 worshipper, seven persons participating if you, a mathematical 

 Occidental, wish to be particular. 



To atone for sin known or unknown, to placate or win favour 

 with the surpernatural Eeing or beings, to inaugurate any 

 important enterprise, to avert some dreaded disaster, to exjjress 

 gratitude for a prosperous season, or for deliverance from 

 danger at sea or on a journey, sacrificial animals are slain, 

 sacrificial blood is shed. When a building is erected, a sheep is 

 slain at the foot of the thresliold " ; money also is sometimes 

 buried in the threshold : a bride walks into her new home 

 through the blood of a lamb killed at the door ; to prevent a 

 raging conflagration I'rom crossing a street, sprinkle it with 

 sacrificial blood ; and do the same to check the spread of 

 pestilence. 



Sacrifice in Asia Minor to-day is interpreted to mean " blood 

 for blood, bone for bone, flesh for flesh, life for life." The death 

 carries the idea of expiation for sin, a vicarious atonement, 

 and the feast which follows is the convivial meal of those who 

 enjoy satisfactory relations with God. Piacular and honorific 

 elements thus are both habitually present in the act of worship, 

 though naturally the emphasis may be laid upon one or the 

 other ; possibly upon one to the exclusion of the other. Wine, 

 bread, and sometimes other food usually accompany the flesh on 

 the table. The meat is never wasted by burning. 



Some time ago I spent a night away from home, and was 

 urgently requested by a Greek to come and see his son who was 

 sick. The young man seemed to be in the last stages of 

 tuberculosis, and, as the parents talked with such yearning, the 

 mother said to me : " I vowed that if my boy recovered I would 

 go to our monastery four days distant and offer a sacrifice there." 



A ruddy-faced youth was one day absent from school, and 

 when he returned he stated as the reason, " For carrying a 

 sheep to the Armenian Monastery for sacrifice." The lad's 

 father was dead, and the widowed mother had lost one daughter 

 by reason of a fever, so when another daughter, aged about 

 sixteen, sickened with fever, the mother was thrown into 

 an agony of fear and vowed to offer a sheep if the child 

 was restored to health. She was restored; and then the 

 family repaired with near friends to the monastery, killed a 



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