[74] Moor and Roupell, quoted by Ling Roth, op. cit. p. 70 sq.; also by Read and Dalton, op. cit. p. 6.
The sacrifice of human victims is resorted to as a method of putting an end to a devastating famine.
Instances of this practice are reported to have occurred among the ancient Greeks[75] and Phenicians.[76] In a grievous famine, after other great sacrifices, of oxen and of men, had proved unavailing, the Swedes offered up their own king Dómaldi.[77] Chinese annals tell us that there was a great drought and famine for seven years after the accession of T‘ang, the noble and pious man who had overthrown the dynasty of Shang. It was then suggested at last by some one that a human victim should be offered in sacrifice to Heaven, and prayer be made for rain, to which T‘ang replied, “If a man must be the victim I will be he.”[78] Up to quite recent times, the priests of Lower Bengal have, in seasons of scarcity, offered up children to Siva; in the years 1865 and 1866, for instance, recourse was had to such sacrifices in order to avert famine.[79]
[75] Pausanias, vii. 19. 3 sq. Diodorus Siculus, iv. 61. 1 sqq. Geusius, op. cit. i. ch. 14.
[76] Porphyry, op. cit. ii. 56.
[77] Snorri Sturluson, ‘Ynglingasaga,’ 15, in Heimskringla, i. 30.
[78] Legge, Religions of China, p. 54.
[79] Hunter, Annals of Rural Bengal, i. 128.
For people subsisting on agriculture a failure of crops means starvation and death,[80] and is, consequently, attributed to the murderous designs of a superhuman being, such as the earth spirit, the morning star, the sun, or the rain-god. By sacrificing to that being a man, they hope to appease its thirst for human blood; and whilst some resort to such a sacrifice only in case of actual famine, others try to prevent famine by making the offering in advance. This I take to be the true explanation of the custom of securing good crops by means of human sacrifice, of which many instances have been produced by Dr. Frazer.[81] There are obvious links between this custom and that of the actual famine-sacrifice. Thus the ancient Peruvians sacrificed children after harvest, when they prepared to make ready the land for the next year, not every year, however, but “only when the weather was not good, and seasonable.”[82] In Great Benin, “if there is too much rain, then all the people would come from farm and beg Overami [the king] to make juju, and sacrifice to stop the rain. Accordingly a woman was taken, a prayer made over her, and a message saluting the rain god put in her mouth, then she was clubbed to death and put up in the execution tree so that the rain might see…. In the same way if there is too much sun so that there is a danger of the crops spoiling, Overami can sacrifice to the Sun God.”[83] The principle of substitution admits of a considerable latitude in regard to the stage of danger at which the offering is made; the danger may be more imminent, or it may be more remote. This holds good of various kinds of human sacrifice, not only of such sacrifices as are intended to influence the crops. I am unable to subscribe to the hypothesis cautiously set forth by Dr. Frazer, that the human victim who is killed for the purpose of ensuring good crops is regarded as a representative of the corn-spirit and is slain as such. So far as I can see, Dr. Frazer has adduced no satisfactory evidence in support of his supposition; whereas a detailed examination of various cases mentioned by him in connection with it indicates that they are closely related to human sacrifices offered on other occasions, and explicable from the same principle, that of substitution.
[80] Cf. Sleeman, Rambles and Recollections, i. 204 sqq.:—“In India, unfavourable seasons produce much more disastrous consequences than in Europe…. More than three-fourths of the whole population are engaged in the cultivation of the land, and depend upon its annual returns for subsistence…. Tens of thousands die here of starvation, under calamities of season, which in Europe would involve little of suffering to any class.”