Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/435

 Rh certain magic practices, in order to be efficacious, have to be performed before breakfast. The Masai use strong purges before they venture to eat holy meat. The Caribs purified their bodies by purging, bloodletting, and fasting; and the natives of the Antilles, at certain religious festivals, cleansed themselves by vomiting before they approached the sanctuary. The true object of fasting often appears from the fact that it is practised hand in hand with other ceremonies of a purificatory character. A Lappish noaide, or wizard, prepares himself for the offering of a sacrifice by abstinence from food and ablutions. Herodotus tells us that the ancient Egyptians fasted before making a sacrifice to Isis, and beat their bodies while the victims were burnt. When a Hindu resolves to visit a sacred place, he has his head shaved two days preceding the commencement of his journey, and fasts the next day; on the last day of his journey he fasts again, and on his arrival at the sacred spot he has his whole body shaved, after which he bathes. In Christianity we likewise meet with fasting as a rite of purification. At least as early as the time of Tertullian it was usual for communicants to prepare themselves by fasting for receiving the Eucharist; and to this day Roman Catholicism regards it as unlawful to consecrate or partake of it after food or drink. The Lent fast itself was partly interpreted as a purifying preparation for the holy table. And in the early