Animal Worship

Animal Worship, or adoration paid by man to any of the lower animals, probably arose from the want of distinction in the savage mind between the soul of a human being and that of a brute, and was strengthened by the later doctrine of metempsychosis. It is a distinct stage in religious development, and its different forms may be conveniently grouped under three heads: (1) The beast was worshipped as being possessed of greater power, skill, or cunning than its worshippers, and propitiated by offerings and ceremonies as, for example, by Kamtchadales, who worshipped the bears and wolves that could devour them and the whales that could overturn their boats; (2) the beast was regarded as the incarnation of some deity or spirit - this form prevails extensively in India, where, says Tylor, "the sacred cow is not merely to be spared, she is a deity worshipped in annual ceremony, daily perambulated and bowed to by the pious Hindu, who offers her fresh grass and flowers"; and (3) it was raised to the rank of a tribal ancestor, and all animals of the same kind were thenceforward deemed sacred, as was the case in ancient Egypt, where many of the deities were represented wholly or partially under the forms of sacred animals; and the local character of these sacred beasts is shown by the fact that some of those worshipped and mummified after death in one district were killed and eaten with impunity in other places.