The doctrine of
transubstantiation, or the magical conversion of bread into flesh,
was also familiar to the Aryans of ancient India long before the
spread and even the rise of Christianity. The Brahmans taught that
the rice-cakes offered in sacrifice were substitutes for human
beings, and that they were actually converted into the real bodies
of men by the manipulation of the priest. We read that "when it (the
rice-cake) still consists of rice-meal, it is the hair. When he
pours water on it, it becomes skin. When he mixes it, it becomes
flesh: for then it becomes consistent; and consistent also is the
flesh. When it is baked, it becomes bone: for then it becomes
somewhat hard; and hard is the bone. And when he is about to take it
off (the fire) and sprinkles it with butter, he changes it into
marrow. This is the completeness which they call the fivefold animal
sacrifice."
Now, too, we can perfectly understand why on the day of their solemn
communion with the deity the Mexicans refused to eat any other food
than the consecrated bread which they revered as the very flesh and
bones of their God, and why up till noon they might drink nothing at
all, not even water.
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