BLOOD. Robertson Smith (Religion, of the Semites, 1S94, p. 233) notes that among the Semites the sacrificial use of blood " is connected with a series of very important ritual ideas, turning on the conception that the blood is a special seat of the life. But primarily, when the blood is offered at the altar, it is conceived to be drunk by the deity." He compares cases of the drinking of blood among other peoples. In Africa fresh blood is drunk by all the negroes of the White Nile. It is imbibed by Masai warriors, by the Gallas, and, as far as the men are concerned, by the Hottentots. Durkbeim (p. 137) notes that in the tribes of Central Australia human blood is so holy a thing that it serves frequently to consecrate the most respected instruments of the cult. " For example, in certain cases, the nurtunja is regularly anointed from top to bottom with the blood of a man. it is upon ground all saturated with blood that the men of the Emu, among the Arunta, trace their sacred images. There is no religious ceremony where blood does not have ,some part to play. During the initiation, the adults open their veins and sprinkle the novice with their blood; and this blood is so sacred a thing that women may not be present while it is flowing; the sight of it is forbidden them, just as the sight of a_ churinga is. The blood lost by a young initiate during the very violent operations he must undergo has very particular virtues : is used in various ceremonies. That which
flows during the sub-incision is piously kept by the Arunta and buried in a place upon which they put a piece of wood warning passers-by of the sacredness of the spot; no woman should approach it. The religious nature of blood also explains the equal importance, re ligiously, of the red ochre, which is very frequently employed in ceremonies; they rub the chnringa with it and use it in ritual decorations. This Is due to the fact that, because of its colour, it is regarded as something kindred to blood. Many deposits of red ochre which are found in the Arunta territory are even supposed to be the coagulated blood which certain heroines of the mythical period shed on the soil." Elliot Smith has pointed out that blood was regarded as an elixir of life (q.v.), and that red ochre came to be used as a sub stitute for It. It was an Aztec belief that the sun was an animal, which was originally a man. The man had become transformed, and "had received the intense vitality necessary for the performance of his functions from the blood of the gods, voluntarily shed for that purpose " (Edwardes and Spence, p. 48). In the Central American system the sun is often represented as " a deity whose sole sustenance is human blood, and who must be well supplied with this gruesome pabulum or perish " (ibid., p. 72). The Scandinavian god Heim dallr Is nourished by the blood of sacrifices.