Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 686

HUMAN
646
human
SACRIFICES
but unfortunately the proofs are too
they are written in blood in the history of many
nations, and can be only too clearly proved.
Man, over-
whelmed with infirmities and misfortunes, and fully con-
vinced that they were the punishment of his sins, imagined
that he would appease and propitiate the gods by offering
them the noblest and most perfect sacrifice that he could
find.
Firmly imbued with this horrible idea, he considered
himself justified in shedding the blood of human victims as
well as that of animals.
If such an atrocious custom needed
confirmation, recent instances of it could be quoted among
the Hindus, who, in common with other heathen nations,
have not scrupled to drench the altars of their gods with the
blood of their fellow-men.
I will say nothing of the abominable teachings of their
magicians in this respect. Criminal abuses committed by
a few are no proof of the absence of religion and morality in
a nation as a whole. If an infamous charlatan ventures to
assure powerful patrons who are so weak as to have recourse
to his arts, that it is necessary to shed human blood in order
to ensure success in his mysterious operations, and if it is
only too certain that unfortunate virgins have been sacri-
ficed at the satkis of these magicians, the disgrace of it all
must rest on the heads of those who are responsible for the
maintenance of social order.
A similar sacrifice, however, is recommended when the
grand yagnam is performed
and though a horse is most
often offered, still the nara-medha, or sacrifice of a human
victim, is held to be infinitely more pleasing to the deity
who is the object of the ceremony, and is consequently to
be preferred. There is, furthermore, not a single province
in India where the inhabitants do not still point out to the
traveller places where their Rajahs used to offer up to their
idol