Then the hide was stuffed with
straw and sewed up; next the stuffed animal was set on its feet and
yoked to a plough as if it were ploughing. A trial then took place
in an ancient law-court presided over by the King (as he was called)
to determine who had murdered the OX. The maidens who had brought
the water accused the men who had sharpened the axe and knife; the
men who had sharpened the axe and knife blamed the men who had
handed these implements to the butchers; the men who had handed the
implements to the butchers blamed the butchers; and the butchers
laid the blame on the axe and knife, which were accordingly found
guilty, condemned, and cast into the sea.
The name of this sacrifice,-- "the _murder_ of the OX,"--the pains
taken by each person who had a hand in the slaughter to lay the
blame on some one else, together with the formal trial and
punishment of the axe or knife or both, prove that the OX was here
regarded not merely as a victim offered to a god, but as itself a
sacred creature, the slaughter of which was sacrilege or murder.
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