Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/434

392 observes the fast. The Hebrews associated fasting with divine revelations. St. Chrysostom says that fasting "makes the soul brighter, and gives it wings to mount up and soar on high."

Ideas of this kind partly underlie the common practice of abstaining from food before or in connection with the performance of a magic or religious ceremony; but there is yet another ground for this practice. The effect attributed to fasting is not merely psychical, but it also prevents pollution. Food may cause defilement, and, like other polluting matter, be detrimental to sanctity. Among the Maoris, "no food is permitted to touch the head or hair of a chief, which is sacred; and if food is mentioned in connection with anything sacred (or 'tapu') it is considered as an insult, and revenged as such." So also a full stomach may be polluting. This is obviously the reason why in Morocco and elsewhere