It remains to ask more precisely what was the primitive significance of the offering of first-fruits. At first sight it may seem as if the question were superfluous. Surely we have here the simplest possible instance of the service of ‘tendance’ (θεραπεία), the primitive sacrifice that embodies the very essence of _do ut des_, a gift given to the god to ‘smooth his face,’ a gift that necessarily presupposes the existence of a god with a face to be smoothed. Such seems to have been the view of Aristotle[204]. He says in characteristically Greek fashion, ‘They hold sacrifices, and meetings in connexion therewith, paying rites of worship to the gods while providing rest and recreation for themselves. For the most ancient sacrifices and meetings seem to be as it were offerings of first-fruits after the gathering in of the various harvests. For those were the times of year when the ancients were especially at leisure.’ Aristotle clearly takes the view of sacrifice already discussed, that sacrifice is mainly an occasion for enjoyment and the result of leisure, but his remark as to its early connection with first-fruits goes deeper down than he himself knows. Regarded as a θυσία, a sacrifice, the offering of first-fruits presupposes, as we have said, a god or spirit to whom sacrifice is made, and a god of human passions. But it must not be forgotten that in this view we are making a very large assumption, i.e. that of the existence of some such god or spirit. It is instructive to note that among other primitive races ceremonies have been observed which apparently are not addressed to any god or spirit, and yet which seem to contain in them a possible germ of some idea akin to sacrifice.