of Greece and Italy, long after they had renounced cannibalism, still continued to sacrifice human beings to their deities." And he might have added, that some savage peoples continued cannibalism when the religious idea of its beginning had been almost swept away entirely by the brutalism of its inhuman nature and tendencies. Referring to the date of the conquest of Mexico, he says: “Cannibalism, in ordinary life, was no longer practised. The city of Mexico underwent all the horrors of famine during the siege conducted by Fernando Cortes. When the Spaniards finally entered the city, they found the streets strewn with corpses, which is a sufficient proof that human flesh. was not eaten even in dire extremities. And, nevertheless, the Aztecs not only pushed human sacrifices to a frantic extreme, but they were ritual cannibals, that is to say, there were certain occasions on which they ate the flesh of the human victims they had immolated."1

And as it was in India and in America and in the Islands of the Sea, so it seems to have been wherever the primitive idea of cannibalism as a prevalent custom has been intelligently sought out.

1 Native Relig. of Mex. and Peru, p. 76.

2 See references to cannibalism as a religious rite among the Khonds of Orissa, the people of Sumatra, etc., in Adams's Curiosities of Superstition.

DRINKING THE BLOOD OF GRAPES. 191

7. SYMBOLIC SUBSTITUTES FOR BLOOD.

As the primitive and more natural method of commingling bloods, in the blood-covenant, by sucking each other's veins, or by an inter-transference of blood from the mutually opened veins, was in many regions superseded by the symbolic laving, or sprinkling, or anointing, with blood; and as the blood of the lower animals was often substituted, vicariously, for human blood;—so the blood and wine which were commingled for mutual drinking in the covenant-rite, or which were together poured out in libation, when the covenant was between man and the Deity, came, it would appear, to be represented, in many cases, by the wine alone. First, we find men pledging each other in a sacred covenant, in the inter-drinking of each other's blood mingled with wine. They called their covenant-draught, " assiratum," or "vinum assiratum"; 'wine, covenant-filled." By and by, apparently, they came to count simple wine-" the blood of grapes" as the representative of blood and wine, in many forms of covenanting.

This mutual drinking, as a covenant-pledge, has been continued as an element in the marriage ceremony, the world over, down to the present time. It would even

1 Gen. 49: II; Deut. 32: 14; Ecclesiasticus 39: 26; 50: 15; I Macc. 6: 34.

seem that the gradual changes in the methods of this symbolic rite could be tracked, through its various forms in this ceremony, in different portions of the world. Among the wide-spreading 'Anazeh Bed'ween, the pouring out of a blood libation is still the mode of completing the marriage-covenant. "When the marriage day is fixed," says Burckhardt,1 "the bridegroom comes with a lamb in his arms to the tent of the father of his bride, and then, before witnesses, he cuts its throat. As soon as the blood falls upon the earth, the marriage ceremony is regarded as complete." Among the Bed'ween of Sinai, as Palmer tells us, the bride is sprinkled with the blood of the lamb, before she is surrendered to the bridegroom. Lane's mention of the prominence of outpoured blood at the weddings of the Copts in Cairo, has already been cited. Among the Arabs, since the days of Muhammad, wine has been generally abjured, and coffee now commonly takes its place as a drink, in all ordinary conferences for covenanting.

In Borneo, among the Dayaks, the bride and the bridegroom sit side by side, facing the rising sun. Their parents then besprinkle them with the blood of some animal, and also with water. "Each being next presented with a cup of arrack, they mutually pour half into each 1 In Beduinen und Wahaby, p. 86 f.

2 Desert of the Exodus, I., 90.

3 See page 72, supra.

THE FIXING POINT OF THE COMPACT. 193

other's cup, take a draught, and exchange vessels."1 In Burmah, among the Karens, water is poured upon the bride as she enters the bridegroom's house. When she is received by the bridegroom, "each one then gives the other to drink, and each says to the other, 'Be faithful to thy covenant.' This is the proper marriage ceremony, and the parties are now married.” 2

The blood of an ox, or a cow, is caused to flow at the door of the bride's house, as a part of the marriage ceremony, in Namaqua Land.3 A similar custom prevails among the Kafirs of Natal; and an observer has said of this blood-flowing, in the covenanting rite: "This appears to be the fixing point of the ceremony"; this is "the real matrimonial tie."4

Again it is the sharing from the same dish in drinking, as well as in eating, that the bride and the bridegroom covenant in marriage, in the Feejee Islands.5 The liquor that is made the common draught, as a substitute for the primitive blood-potion, is commonly the spirituous drink of the region; whether that drink be wine, or arrack, or whiskey, or beer. The symbolism is the same in every case.

1 Wood's Wedding Day, p. 144.

2 Mason, in Journ. of Asiat. Soc. of Bengal, Vol. XXXV., Part II., p. 17; cited in Spencer's Des. Soc., V., 9.

3 Andersson's Lake Ngami, p. 220 f.

4 Shooter's Kafirs of Natal, p. 77.

5 Williams and Calvert's Fiji and the Fijians, p. 134.

In the Sanskrit, the word asrij signifies both "blood," and "saffron." In the Hindoo wedding ceremony, in Malabar, "a dish of a liquid like blood, made of saffron and lime," is held over the heads of the bride and groom. When the ceremony is concluded, the newly married couple sprinkle the spectators with this blood-like mixture;2 which seems, indeed, not only here but in many other cases, in India, to have become a substitute for the covenanting blood. Reference has already been made to its use in connection with the covenant of the nose-ring; and the saffron colored cord of the wedding necklace, among the Brahmans, has also been mentioned.3

A still more remarkable illustration of this saffron mixture in lieu of blood, in formal covenanting, in India, is found in its use in the rite of "adoption." In India, as elsewhere throughout the East, the desire of every parent to have a son is very strong. A son is longed for, to inherit the parental name and posses sions, to perform the funeral rites and the annual ceremonies in honor of his parents; and, indeed, "it is said in the Dattaka-Mimansa, 'Heaven awaits not one who is destitute of a son."" When, therefore, parents have not a son of their own, they often formally adopt one; and, in this ceremony, saffron-water seems to

1 See Monier Williams's Sanskrit Dictionary, s. v.

2 See Pike's Sub-Tropical Rambles, p. 198. 3 See pages 77, 165, supra.