LIV. Types of Animal Sacrament
1. The Egyptian and the Aino Types of Sacrament
WE are now perhaps in a position to understand the ambiguous
behaviour of the Aino and Gilyaks towards the bear. It has been
shown that the sharp line of demarcation which we draw between
mankind and the lower animals does not exist for the savage. To him
many of the other animals appear as his equals or even his
superiors, not merely in brute force but in intelligence; and if
choice or necessity leads him to take their lives, he feels bound,
out of regard to his own safety, to do it in a way which will be as
inoffensive as possible not merely to the living animal, but to its
departed spirit and to all the other animals of the same species,
which would resent an affront put upon one of their kind much as a
tribe of savages would revenge an injury or insult offered to a
tribesman. We have seen that among the many devices by which the
savage seeks to atone for the wrong done by him to his animal
victims one is to show marked deference to a few chosen individuals
of the species, for such behaviour is apparently regarded as
entitling him to exterminate with impunity all the rest of the
species upon which he can lay hands.
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