[91] See Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, pp. 292, 296, 317 sq.
Gods are fond of prayers not only as expressions of humility or repentance but for other reasons as well. In early religion a prayer is commonly connected with an offering, since the god is not supposed to bestow his favours gratuitously.[92] By the call contained in it he is invited to partake of the offering, or his attention is drawn to it.[93] “Compassionate father!” says the Tanna priest when he offers first-fruits to a deified ancestor; “here is some food for you, eat it, and be kind to us on account of it!”[94] In one of the Pahlavi texts it is said that when the guardian spirits of the righteous are invited they accept the sacrifice, whereas if they are not invited “they go up the height of a spear and will remain.”[95] Throughout the Yasts we hear of the claims of deities to be worshipped with sacrifices in which they are invoked by their own names and with the proper words.[96] Mithra complains, “If men would worship me with a sacrifice in which I were invoked by my own name, as they worship the other Yazatas with sacrifices in which they are invoked by their own names, then I would come to the faithful at the appointed time.”[97] According to Vedic and Zoroastrian texts the gods were purified, strengthened, and encouraged not only by offerings but by prayers, although it is difficult in this respect to distinguish between two elements in one and the same rite which are so closely interwoven with each other.[98] By his invocations man assists the gods in their combats with evil demons, he sends his prayer between the earth and the heavens there to smite the fiends.[99] In a Vedic hymn the people are exhorted to “sing to Indra a song very destructive to the demons.”[100] By pronouncing the praise of Asha, Zarathustra brings the Daevas to naught;[101] by mentioning the name of Ahura Mazda their malice is most effectually destroyed.[102] Thus prayer may be a religious duty also on account of the magic efficacy ascribed to it, and the same is the case with incantations directed against evil spirits.
[92] Tylor, Primitive Culture, ii. 364 sqq. Georgi, Russia, iii. 272 (shamanistic peoples of Siberia). Maspero, Études de mythologie et d’archéologie égyptiennes, i. 163; Idem, Dawn of Civilization, p. 124, n. 5 (ancient Egyptians). Darmesteter, in Sacred Books of the East, iv. (1st ed.) p. lxix. (Zoroastrians). Oldenberg, op. cit. p. 430 sqq.; Barth, Religions of India, p. 34 (Vedic people). Donaldson, ‘Expiatory and Substitutionary Sacrifices of the Greeks,’ in Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, xxvii. 430. Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, i. 29. Among the Kafirs of Natal “a soldier wounded in battle would only pray if his hurt were slight; but if it were serious, he would vow a sacrifice on his return, naming perhaps the particular beast” (Shooter, Kafirs of Natal, p. 164).
[93] Cf. Brinton, Religions of Primitive Peoples, p. 104.
[94] Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia, p. 88.
[95] Shâyast Lâ-Shâyast, ix. 12.
[96] Yasts, viii. 23 sqq.; x. 30.
[97] Ibid. x. 55. Cf. ibid. x. 74.
[98] See Bergaigne, La religion védique, ii. 237, 250, 273 sqq.; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 337 sqq.; Oldenberg, Religion des Veda, p. 437; Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p. 60; Meyer, Geschichte des Alterthums, i. 534 sq. (Zoroastrianism).
[99] Yasna, xxviii. 7. Yasts, iii. 5. Vendîdâd, xix. 1, 2, 8 sqq. Darmesteter, Ormazd et Ahriman, pp. 101, 119, 131, 193. Idem, in Sacred Books of the East, iv. (1st ed.) p. lxix.