As regards the eating of the sacrifice, it may perhaps in one respect be regarded as the consummation of the hostile act. Cronos eats his children in order to be sure of getting rid of them; and the swallowing of children or even of grown men by an ogre, giant, monster or witch is a not uncommon theme in folklore. The eating of the parents by the children in their turn is a natural and obvious form of revenge; and has actually been practised by some primitive people[195]. At the same time eating may be regarded as an honour or as a sign of affection; as is necessarily to some extent the case, since the totem animal represents the god and is itself as a rule sacred and inviolable except in certain circumstances. This aspect indeed obviously plays a part of great importance in the Christian sacrament in its present form[196]. The most important aspect of all however is that in virtue of which the eater is supposed to acquire or to participate in the nature, qualities or properties of that which is eaten, the worshipper thus becoming one with the God whose flesh and blood he consumes; in this way at one and the same time:--(a) himself acquiring directly some of the qualities of the divinity, (b) becoming assured of his kinship with God, the common meal being regarded as the especial symbol of this kinship (as indeed of kinship in general)[197], (c) becoming likewise assured of his kinship with his fellow worshippers, all becoming brothers by participation in the divine meal and in the underlying ideas--including of course the original father hatred and the atonement for this--which this meal implies. Thus it appears that the food which is consumed in the Communion represents:-- (1) the Father (a) as hated and killed, (b) as honoured. (2) the Son, as slain to atone for the father-murder and offered up in honour to the Father. The actual consumption of the food represents:-- (1) the eating of the Father (a) as a sign of hostility, (b) as a sign of honour or affection, (c) as a means of partaking of the divine nature (_i. e._ acquiring the father attributes). (2) the eating of the Son, as a means of establishing identity with him and thus sharing in the atonement which he has made by his sacrifice. (3) the establishment of a sense of communion and of kinship between the fellow worshippers themselves and between them and the deity, through participation in the divine meal with all that this implies. [Sidenote: The influence of family tendencies in religion]