Religion and Myth, by James Macdonald, , at sacred-texts.com The
festivals and ceremonial acts of any people give a clue to the
original form of their institutions, and when these can be
compared with what still exists, in its original form, among
untutored nations, it affords evidence which is of the first
importance in tracing the development of religion and the growth
of civilisation. The Yam festivals, as observed in Ashantee,
were referred to in considering substitutionary sacrifice, and
we saw how closely bound up with the religious life of the
people are all the facts relating to the ripening of crops and
the gathering in of the harvest. Nor is this peculiar to
Ashantee. Everywhere the feasts of first-fruits are intimately
associated with the religious observances of the people and the
homage which they render to the gods. Among savages this homage
is to the powers of nature, whose efforts are crowned with
success when the creative and reproductive spirit of vegetation
yields its increase to man. When