In Russia the domovoi (house spirit) is an important personage in folk-belief; he may object to certain kinds of animals, or to certain colours in cattle; and must, generally speaking, be propitiated and cared for.
Dale's Atonement (1875), the special point of which is that the death of Christ is not required by the personal demand of God to be propitiated, but by the necessity of honouring an ideal law of righteousness; thus, " the death of Christ is the objective ground on which the sins of men are remitted, because it was an act of submission to the righteous authority of the law by which the human race was condemned.
It is related that Nezahualcoyotl, the poet-king of Tezcuco, built a ninestoried temple with a starry roof above, in honour of the invisible deity called Tloquenahuaque, " he who is all in himself," or Ipalnemoani, " he by whom we live," who had no image, and was propitiated, not by bloody sacrifices, but by incense and flowers.
In the month of the " diminishing of waters " the rain gods or Tlalocs were propitiated by a procession of priests with music of flutes and trumpets carrying on plumed litters infants with painted faces, in gay clothing with coloured paper wings, to be sacrificed on the mountains or in a whirlpool in the lake.
This stage of religion is well illustrated by the Red Indian custom of offering sacrifice to certain rocks, or whirlpools, or to the indwelling spirits connected with them; the rite is only performed in the neighbourhood of the object, it is an incident of a canoe or other voyage, and is not intended to secure any benefits beyond a safe passage past the object in question; the spirit to be propitiated has a purely local sphere of influence, and powers of a very limited nature.
