As for ceremonial, when the Persians offer sacrifice to the deities [...], they erect no altar and kindle no fire. The libation, the flute music, the garlands, the sprinkled meal - all these things, familiar to us, they have no use for. But before a ceremony, a man sticks a spray of leaves, usually myrtle leaves, into his headdress, takes his victim to some open place and invokes the deity to whom he wishes to sacrifice. The actual worshipper is not permitted to pray for any personal or private blessing, but only for the king and for the general good of the community. (The actual worshipper is not permitted to pray for any personal or private blessing, but only for the king and for the general good of the community, of which he is himself a part.) When he has cut up the animal and cooked it, he makes a little heap of the softest green-stuff he can find, preferably clover, and lays all the meat upon it. This done, a Magian -a member of this caste is always present at sacrifices- utters an incantation over it in a form of words which is supposed to recount the birth of the gods. Then after a short interval the worshipper removes the flesh and does what he pleases with it.
[Herodotus, Histories 1.132;
tr. Aubrey de Selincourt]
Other instances where Herodotus mentions the
Magians as sacrificers are 7.43 (libations at
Troy), 7.113 (a sacrifice of white horses) and 7.191 (bloody offerings to sea gods). As we will see below, the sacrificial practice is also attested in Persian sources.
In
Persepolis, the administrative capital of the Achaemenid empire, a large archive of administrative texts was found, the
Persepolis fortification tablets. They can be dated in the reign of king
Darius I the Great (522-486) and we learn that the Magians were as accountants and controllers involved in the administration. It was a common practice in the ancient Near East to use religious officials as admistrators as well.
In these texts, the Magians are also mentioned in their religious capacities: they were responsible for the lan-sacrifice, for which Darius allotted every month 30 liters of barley or flour, fruits and 10 liters of wine. It is the only type of sacrifice that is mentioned in connection to Persepolis.
Because the king was involved, this sacrifice as probably offered to Ahuramazda, the only god mentioned in Darius' texts. He was the supreme god of the Persians. In other words, the Magians -and not the priests- were responsible for the most important sacrifice in the state religion.
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Maguzawa, the animist religion, was practiced extensively before Islam. In the more remote areas of Hausaland Maguzawa has remained fully intact, but as one gets closer to more urban areas it almost totally disappears. It often includes the sacrifice of animals for personal ends, it is thought of as illegitimate to practice Maguzawa magic for harm. What remains in more populous areas is a “cult of
spirit possession” known as
Bori which still holds the old religion's elements of animism and
magic.