I shall only mention Herbert Spencer's view that "the origin of the practice of making offerings is to be found in the custom of leaving food and drink at the graves of the dead, and as the ancestral spirit rose to divine rank, the refreshments placed for the dead developed into sacrifices." It must stand or fall with his general theory of the origin of religion, of which the reader will form his own judgment. I would suggest that the earliest offering was rather a portion of the ordinary meal set apart in grateful recognition of the source from which it came.
I find little or nothing in Shinto to bear out Jevons's opinion that "the core of worship is communion. Offerings in the sense of gifts are a comparatively modern institution both in ancestor-worship and in the worship of the Gods." Communion is, of course, out of the question in the case of the various offerings of clothing and implements. Even in the case of food-offerings there is no evidence in Shinto of a "joint participation in the living flesh and blood of a sacred victim."[178]
The general object of making offerings is to propitiate the God. There are several cases in the _norito_ where they are made by way of reward for their services or in bargain for future blessings.[179] Some are expiatory, and are made with the object of absolving the worshipper from ritual impurity. These are called _aga-mono_, or "ransom things."
Offerings were frequently duplicated, no doubt in order that one set at least of the things offered should be free from chance pollution.
Offerings were sometimes personified, and even deified, as in the Jimmu legend,[180] where the food-offering is styled Idzu-uka no me, sacred-food-female. Most of the _shintai_ were originally nothing more than offerings.
Shinto offerings are of the most varied description. The Gods being conceived of as beings animated by human sentiments, it is inferred that anything which would give pleasure to men is suitable for offering to a God.
_Food and Drink_.--The primary and most important form of offering is food and drink. The Jimmu legend, a very ancient document, speaks of none but food-offerings. The word _nihe_, an element in the names of some of the great festivals, means food-offerings. The central feature of the most solemn rite of Shinto, namely, the _oho-nihe_, was the offering of rice and sake to the Gods by the Mikado on his accession to the throne. The _norito_ add clothing, and the _Yengishiki_ a great variety of other articles. There are several instances in history of the substitution of cloth for an older food-offering. Under food are included rice, in ear and in grain, hulled and in husk, rice cakes, fruit, sea-ear, shell-fish, vegetables, edible seaweed, salt, sake, water, deer, pigs, hare, wild boar, and birds of various kinds. In 642 horses and cattle were sacrificed in order to produce rain. But even at this early period such sacrifices were condemned. They were no doubt a revival in a case of national emergency of a practice which under Buddhist influence had become more or less obsolete. There are numerous indications that animal sacrifices were very common in the most ancient times. In the _Yengishiki_ period offerings of four-footed animals or their flesh were confined to four services, namely, that of the Food-Goddess, of the Wind-Gods, of the Road-Gods, and that for driving away maleficent deities.