Note 9 — Chapter XIX · The Man of Sin.

Mr. Herbert Spencer has described the class of superstitions out of which the sacrament of the Eucharist has grown. ‘In some cases,’ he says, ‘parts of the dead are swallowed by the living, who seek thus to inspire themselves with the good qualities of the dead; and we saw (§ 133) that the dead are supposed to be honoured by this act. The implied notion was supposed to be associated with the further notion that the nature of another being, inhering in all the fragments of his body, inheres too in the unconsumed part of anything consumed with his body; so that an operation wrought on the remnants of his food becomes an operation wrought on the food swallowed, and therefore on the swallower. Yet another implication is, that between those who swallow different parts of the same food some community of nature is established. Hence such beliefs as that ascribed by Bastian to some negroes, who think that, ‘on eating and drinking consecrated food, they eat and drink the god himself’—such god being an ancestor, who has taken his share. Various ceremonies among savages are prompted by this conception; as, for instance, the choosing a totem. Among the Mosquito Indians, ‘the manner of obtaining this guardian was to proceed to some secluded spot and offer up a sacrifice: with the beast or bird which thereupon appeared, in dream or in reality, a compact for life was made, by drawing blood from various parts of the body.’ This blood, supposed to be taken by the chosen animal, connected the two, and the animal’s life became so bound up with their own that the death of one involved that of the other.’9 And now mark that, in these same regions, this idea reappears as a religious observance. Sahagun and Herrera describe a ceremony of the Aztecs called ‘eating the god.’ Mendieta, describing this ceremony, says, ‘They had also a sort of eucharist.... They made a sort of small idols of seeds, ... and ate them as the body or memory of their gods.’ As the seeds were cemented partly by the blood of sacrificed boys; as their gods were cannibal gods; as Huitzilopochtli, whose worship included this rite, was the god to whom human sacrifices were most extensive; it is clear that the aim was to establish community with gods by taking blood in common.’10