Students of primitive religions have revealed some very important aspects of the natural response of man to the Creator, aspects which have sometimes become overlaid by the more sophisticated types of cultured religion. One of the differences between that natural response and the educated worship of classical times may be seen in the theory and practice of purification, and the comparison between the two bears remarkably on the modern Christian's attitude to mortification.

The almost universal conception of purity and impurity is that of the unmixed and the mixed. The pure note sounds without admixture of over- or under-tones, or of any other sound but its simple music; pure milk has no foreign germ, no water mixed with it. And among the primitive peoples the brand of impurity or defilement arose from the mixture of races, of sexes, of seasons. Men have to keep their weapons and implements apart from the Women's household utensils.