The building of this altar is spread over a whole year, during which period the sacrificer has to carry about the sacrificial fire in an earthen pan for at least some time each day, until it is finally deposited on the completed altar to serve as the offering-fire for the Soma oblations.
The fire which was merely a material fire before, in which to make oblations, assumed a new aspect and became the Lord.
The acts of religion partake of the general simplicity of desert life; apart from the private worship of household gods and the oblations and salutations offered at the graves of departed kinsmen, the ritual observances of the ancient Arabs were visits to the tribal sanctuary to salute the god with a gift of milk, first-fruits or the like, the sacrifice of firstlings and vows (see Nazarite and Passover), and an occasional pilgrimage to discharge a vow at the annual feast and fair of one of the more distant holy places (see MEccA).
Their duties became merged in the ordinary work of the bishops and counts, and under the emperor Charles the Bald they took control of associations 1 The history of the practice of elevating the host seems to have arisen out of the custom of holding up the oblations, as mentioned in the Ordo Romanus (see above).
Being intended for the Hotri's use, both these works treat exclusively of the hymns and verses recited by that priest and his assistants, either in the form of connected litanies or in detached verses invoking the deities to whom oblations are made, or uttered in response to the.