THE WORSHIP OF ANIMALS. 
By REV. C. W. WEN DTE* 
Zoolatry, or the worship of animals, is one of the most wide¬ 
spread and deeply-rooted of the early adorations of mankind, and 
found not only among primitive and savage peoples but surviving 
in higher levels of culture. 
It would seem as if the religious sentiment had manifested itself 
in no more singular and repulsive form than in this worship of the 
brute. Strange and revolting spectacle to see man kneeling before 
the beast, the superior worshipping the inferior intelligence ! The 
origin and meaning of Zoolatry is a subject fraught with difficulty. 
Of late years new light has been thrown upon it by the careful 
researches of the ethnologists and missionaries into the animal 
worship still maintained by existing savages. The lecturer pro 
ceeded with much elaboration and many illustrations drawn from 
the religious life of ancient and modern peoples, to state the causes 
which, in the opinion of leading authorities on the subject, account 
for the existence of Zoolatry. First, the animals were worshipped 
directly for certain real or imaginary qualities attributed to them. 
Secondly,' they were revered as the incarnations of deceased an¬ 
cestors or the chosen seat of higher deities. Next veneration for 
a tribal totem or clan animal led to its adoration. And, lastly, the 
early identification of the brutes with the celestial phenomena con- 
nected them mystically with the worship paid to the sun, moon 
and stars. 
To account for the continued existence of Zoolatry among more 
advanced races and on higher levels of culture we must consider 
it as a simple case of survival and inheritance from the past. 
When the higher religion came it found the old one already in 
possession of the ground and unable to crush it out entirely was 
compelled to incorporate it with such changes and modifications 
as were possible. Thus ancient Egypt when we meet it in history 
was a land of spiritual conceptions in religion and also of sacred 
♦Abstract of a paper read before the Society November 6th, 1SS4. 
