.\ s has been suggested above, saeritiee is au im portant clement of demonology. Since this class of offerings must he in general propitiatory, they :ire usually,. in conformity to the nature of the demon. of a bloody or revolting character. Thus among the .\zte•s the by 1111111:111 III• h. art h•ing the offering specially dear to him. The `customs' of A with their enormous waste of life. and their cruelty to men and ani mals. were primarily based on the necessity of appeasing malignant Even among the early I:reeks at sacrifice of maidens was given each year to the \linotatir. and in early Nome the 'fiber received an annual tribute of aged men. As civilization develops, the sacrifice he •oines more and more ritualistic. and sub-litotes for the bloody offering may be made. as when, instead of sacrificing old Melt, dolls were thrown into the Tiber.
The change of god- into demons occurs fre quently. one tribe conquered another. it was etistoluary for the pantheon of the defeated people to be incorporated into that of the con querors. 1\ hon. however, :1 na1 ion has re:felled It monotheistic stage. or is inspired for any other tea son by an intense hat red for I he religion of ttie the god- of the subjected tribe may become demons. This is especially charaeteristio of litter Judaism and I 'Mist ianity and T•as in Ezek. till. 13•1s. ?I long the greatest abominations are elas•ed the annual mourning for Tammuz. an :1111'11'11i Solllitie spring •odling, familiar to its from the Greek version of the myth in the •.tuir• and .\1101Ik, and the worship of the sun. which is most prob ably an alht..iou lo Zoroastrianism. In this latter religion the gods of India (Ski are I 'IV .h/rral. and great Indra to lin‘e been turned into a fiend \mint by the Ira nians, In like manner Ceylone-c Iltiddhism !Wei demons in the ()Id Brahmanic gods, and the jinn, of :11011ammedanism are the heathen Arabic deities in disguise.
The worship of demons has led to the cult. termed diabolism or sa tan ism (q.v.) . The earliest mention Of such a belief is in the Avesta (q.v.), \\ here adherents of non-Zoroastrian faiths are palled daevayasnians or demon-worshipers. Persia still has a numerous stet of devil-wo•ship ers, called Vezidis (41.v.). who endeavor to keep on good terms with the devil that he may not injure them in the future world. A similar tendency existed to a marked degree in early Christian Gnosticism (q.v.). The sect of the Ophites, for instance, regarded Yahweh as an evil divinity, but the serpent, because of his promise of knowledge (Gen. iii. 5), as the highest god and a benefactor of mankind. The modern cult of satanism seems to be a survival of earls' Gnosticism. This worship, which is., for obvious reasons, of an occult nature. seems to unite to diabolism the widespread notions of phallicism, or worship of the reproductive powers of Satanism, which is now mainly a travesty of Christianity. finds its culmination in the so-called black mass, where the Christian ritual is parodied in most revolting ways.
Consult: Collin de Planey, Dietionnaire in fernal (Paris, 1844) : Leman, llistoire dr Satan, su chute, son elate, ses manifestations, ses wuvres (Paris, 18111) Roskoff. Geschichte des Trufels (2 vols., Leipzig, 1869); DM. Etude sur Irs dimoris (Paris, 1831); Laengin, Wundcr und Danzunriaglaube der Gegrnieurt ( Leipzig, 1887) : Conway, Demonology and Deril-Lore (2 vols., 2';e\• York, 1889) ; Bois, Satanisme et In magic (Paris, I895) ; Carus, History of the Devil mid the idea of Evil from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (Chicago. 1900) ; &whiles, Essai sur lc satanisme et la superstition an moyen age (Montauban. 19001: Alexander. Dcmonnie Pos session in the Old Testament (Edinburgh, 1902) and see ANGEL: DEVIL: SOPIIIOLOGY; SUPERSTI TION.