at harvest-time, to age-the tilling of the soil with the plough and the sys-

\ntion of the supreme deity. In many. sections of "Northern \nEurope it is even to-day, customary, at harvest-time, to \nbedeck an ox with ribbons and wreaths of flowers and to lead \nhim in a festal procession. On the other hand, we find that \nthe Vedas and the Avesta, in harmony: with the high value \nwhich the ancient Indian and Iranian peoples place on milk&s;, \nextol the cow as the most sacred of animals. In the first \nstages of the domestication of cattle, it was possible to \ngain only a small supply of milk&s;, since its over-production \ncould be developed but slowly; just for this reason, however; milk ·was all the more valuable. This may prob&s;ably \nalso &s;throw light on the high value which was long placed \non butter as a sacrificial gift. The attempt to secure this \nvaluable &s;product for sacrificial purposes may then itself in \nturn have reacted upon the milk industry. Thus, the two \ngreat advances in material culture that attend the heroic \nage-the tilling of the soil with the plough and the systematic endeavour to secure milk and its products-seem: \nto be, in part, directly due to, and~ in part, closely bound up \nwith, motives of cult. External culture and inner religious \nimpulses have always attested themselves to be elements of \na totality all of whose parts are interrelated. \n