"{39} "Sanctity"--the quality of awfulness and
mystery--rather than divinity or personality, may have been what
primitive man saw in the beasts and birds which he venerated in "their
silent, aloof, goings, in the perfection of their limited doings."{40}
When we use the word "spirit" in connection with the pagan sacramental
practices of Christmastide, it is well to bear in mind the possibility
that at the origin of these customs there may have been no notion of
communion with strictly personal beings, but rather some such _mana_ idea
as has been suggested above.
It is probable that animal-cults had their origin at a stage of human
life preceding agriculture, when man lived not upon cultivated plants or
tamed beasts, but upon roots and fruits and the products of the chase.
Some scholars, indeed, hold that the domestication of animals for
practical use was an outcome of the sacred, inviolable character of
certain creatures: they may originally have been spared not for reasons
of convenience but because it was deemed a crime to kill them--except
upon certain solemn occasions--and may have become friendly towards man
through living by his side.{41} On the other hand it is possible that
totems were originally staple articles of food, that they were sacred
because they were eaten with satisfaction, and that the very awe and
respect attached to them because of their life-giving powers tended to
remove them from common use and limit their consumption to rare
ceremonial occasions.
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