In noting the substitution of animal for human sacrifice, one curious point remains to be observed. The step seems to us momentous because to us human life is sacrosanct. But to the primitive mind the gulf between animal and human is not so wide. The larger animals, and certain animals which for various reasons were specially venerated, were in early days also regarded as sacrosanct, and to slay them was murder, to be atoned for by purification. This notion comes out very clearly in the ritual of the Murder of the Ox, the _Bouphonia_[281], or, as it was sometimes called, the Dipolia[282]. The Bouphonia by the time of Aristophanes[283] was a symbol of what was archaic and obsolete. After the Just Logos in the _Clouds_ has described the austere old educational _régime_ of ancient Athens, the Unjust Logos remarks: ‘Bless me, that’s quite the ancient lot Dipolia-like, chock-full Of crickets and Bouphonia too.’ And the scholiast comments, ‘Dipolia, a festival at Athens, in which they sacrifice to Zeus Polieus, on the 14th day of Skirophorion. It is a mimetic representation of what happened about the cakes (πέλανοι) and the cows[284].’ What happened was this: ‘Barley mixed with wheat, or cakes made of them, was laid upon the bronze altar of Zeus Polieus, on the Acropolis. Oxen were driven round the altar, and the ox which went up to the altar and ate the offering on it was sacrificed. The axe and knife with which the beast was slain had been previously wetted with water, brought by maidens called “water-carriers.” The weapons were then sharpened and handed to the butchers, one of whom felled the ox with the axe and another cut its throat with the knife. As soon as he had felled the ox, the former threw the axe from him and fled, and the man who had cut the beast’s throat apparently imitated his example. Meantime the ox was skinned and all present partook of its flesh. Then the hide was stuffed with straw and sewed up, and next the stuffed animal was set on its feet and yoked to a plough as if it were ploughing. A trial then took place in an ancient law court, presided over by the king (as he was called), to determine who had murdered the ox. The maidens who had brought the water accused the men who had sharpened the axe and knife, the men who had sharpened the axe and knife blamed the men who had handed these implements to the butchers, the men who had handed the implements to the butchers blamed the butchers and the butchers blamed the axe and knife, which were accordingly found guilty and condemned and cast into the sea.’