Note 218 — Chapter IV · THE INFANTILE RECURRENCE OF TOTEMISM (continued 2)

Religion of the Semites, pp. 412-413. “The mourning is not a spontaneous expression of sympathy with the divine tragedy, but obligatory and enforced by fear of supernatural anger. And a chief object of the mourners is to disclaim responsibility for the god’s death—a point which has already come before us in connexion with theanthropic sacrifices, such as the ‘ox-murder at Athens.’”