Note 452 — MENSIS MAIUS.

Sir A. Lyall (Asiatic Studies, p. 19) writes of human sacrifice as having been common in India as a last resort for appeasing divine wrath when manifested in some strange manner; i. e. it was never regular. So Procopius, Bell. Goth. 3. 13. Tacitus, indeed, writes of ‘certis diebus’ (Germ. 9), but it is not clear that he meant fixed recurring days. As a rule in human sacrifice and cannibalism the victims are captives, who would not be always at hand.