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Throughout the centuries, blood has fascinated and awed
man. Early myths about blood became a basis for sacrificed
religious ceremonies, medical practices and even poetry.
Primitive men were aware that an animal soon died after
losing a large amount of blood, and equated blood with
life.
Since blood was believed to contain a life force, it
was even used as a fertilizer for crops with the animal's
characteristics. Lion's blood, for example, was
thought to give men strength and courage.
Red, the color of blood, was thought to have magical
powers. Cro-Magnon man painted the sick and dead
red, hoping to contain the life force. Early Egyptians
painted their bodies with blood to ward off
sickness. Later, pastes and dyes were substituted in
the practice - a forerunner of makeup.
In early England, red coverings were put on beds to treat
smallpox, and strips of red cloth were used as cures for
scarlet fever. Even today, many pills and medications
are colored red, although this coloration has no medical
value.
Among today's slang terms stemming from ancient beliefs
about the blood is blood brothers from the
myth that mixing blood of two people would bind them in
friendship. Blue-blooded, a term denoting royalty,
was originally used by nobles of Castile who could see the
"blue-blood" through their veins.
Other familiar terms include hot-blooded (
easily flies into a rage), cold-blooded ( cruel and
calculating), and blood-bath, which comes from and
ancient Egyptian practice of bathing kings in blood from
sacrificed human subjects to cure leprosy.
The myth that a corpse could identify its assassin by bleeding
originated with the murder of King Henry II. As the
King's son Richard, approached the body, blood allegedly
flowed out of the dead King's nostrils. Later, in
15th century England, a widow was stabbed to death.
The whole village was summoned to touch the body and only one-man
who had been courting the widow failed to appear. After
being pursued and questioned, the man finally confessed to
the murder. He had feared the body would incriminate
him by bleeding if he went near it.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, it was believed
that sickness could be transferred from a patient to a
"sympathetic object." For example, and egg
would be emptied of its contents, filled with blood from a
healthy human and returned to a brooding hen. Then
needed by a patient, the egg was heated in a hot oven for
several hours and then held over the affected part of the
diseased body. The sickness allegedly left the body
of the patient and entered the egg, preferring the healthy
blood in the egg to the diseased blood in the patient.
Although these ancient beliefs about blood have for the
most part disappeared, some still remain to frustrate
modern medical procedures. In certain rural areas,
taking blood samples is forbidden because it is believed
that vital spirits need to keep the body alive might be
removed with the blood. Another primitive belief
retained by some is that blood cannot be replaced once it
is removed from the body.
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