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BOOKS BY H. CLAY TRUMBULL

STUDIES IN ORIENTAL SOCIAL LIFE; And Gleams from the East on the Sacred Page. Large 8vo. Illustrated. $2.50.

KADESH-BARNEA: Its Importance and Probable Site, with the Story of a Hunt for it; including Studies of the Route of the Exodus, and of the Southern Boundary of the Holy Land. Large 8vo. With maps and illustrations. $3.00.

THE BLOOD COVENANT: A Primitive Rite and its Bearings on Scripture. Revised and enlarged edition. 8vo. $2.00.

THE THRESHOLD COVENANT; Or, The Beginning of Religious Rites. 12mo. $2.00. (Published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.)

FRIENDSHIP THE MASTER-PASSION; Or, The Nature and History of Friendship, and its Place as a Force in the World. Large 8vo, in box. $3.00.

THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER: A Biography of Major Henry Ward Camp. 8vo. New and revised edition. With illustrations. $1.50.

PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE: A series of brief essays. Six volumes. Square 16mo. Each volume complete in itself. $2.50 the set, 50 cents a volume.

1. Ourselves and Others.

2. Aspirations and Influences.
3. Seeing and Being.

4. Practical Paradoxes.

5. Character-Shaping and
Character-Showing.

6. Duty-Knowing and
Duty-Doing.

YALE LECTURES ON THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL: The Sundayschool; its Origin, Mission, Methods, and Auxiliaries. The Lyman Beecher Lectures before Yale Divinity School, for 1888. Small 8vo. $1.50.

A MODEL SUPERINTENDENT: A Sketch of the Life, Character, and Methods of Work, of Henry P. Haven, of the International Lesson Committee. 12mo. With portrait. $1.00.

TEACHERS'-MEETINGS: Their Necessity and Methods. Booklet. 12mo. 30 cents.

TEACHING AND TEACHERS; Or, The Sunday-school Teacher's Teaching Work, and the Other Work of the Sunday-school Teacher. 12mo. $1.00.

HINTS ON CHILD-TRAINING. Small 12mo. $1.00.

A LIE NEVER JUSTIFIABLE.

12mo. $1.00.

PRAYER: Its Nature and Scope. 12mo. 75 cents.

IN TRIBULATION; Or, The Blessing of Trials. 12mo. 75 cents. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AS A COVENANT OF LOVE. Booklet. 12mo. 25 cents.

TWO NORTHFIELD SERMONS. 1. Moral Color Blindness. 2. Our Duty of Making the Past a Success. Booklet. 12mo. 30 cents. LIGHT ON THE STORY OF JONAH.

12mo. 20 cents.

Illustrated.

Booklet.

JOHN D. WATTLES & CO., Philadelphia, Pa.

THE

BLOOD COVENANT

A PRIMITIVE RITE

AND ITS BEARINGS ON SCRIPTURE

BY

H. CLAY TRUMBULL

Author of "Kadesh-Barnea," "Friendship the Master-Passion," etc.

THIRD EDITION

PHILADELPHIA

JOHN D. WATTLES & CO.

COPYRIGHT, 1885,

By H. CLAY TRUMBULL.

COPYRIGHT, 1893.

By H. CLAY TRUMBULL.

1902

63511

JUN 2

BTR
777

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

It was while engaged in the preparation of a book -still unfinished-on the Sway of Friendship in the World's Forces,1 that I came upon facts concerning the primitive rite of covenanting by the inter-transfusion of blood, which induced me to turn aside from my other studies, in order to pursue investigations in this direction.

Having an engagement to deliver a series of lectures before the Summer School of Hebrew, under Professor W. R. Harper, of Chicago, at the buildings of the Episcopal Divinity School, in Philadelphia, I decided to make this rite and its linkings the theme of that series; and I delivered three lectures, accordingly, June 16-18, 1885.

The interest manifested in the subject by those who heard the Lectures, as well as the importance of the theme itself, has seemed sufficient to warrant its presentation to a larger public. In this publishing, the form of the original Lectures has, for convenience' sake, been adhered to; although some considerable

1 Since published, with the title of "Friendship the Master-Passion."

iii

additions to the text, in the way of illustrative facts, have been made since the delivery of the Lectures; while other similar material is given in an Appendix.

From the very freshness of the subject itself, there was added difficulty in gathering the material for its illustration and exposition. So far as I could learn, no one had gone over the ground before me in this particular line of research; hence the various items essential to a fair statement of the case must be searched for through many diverse volumes of travel and of history and of archæological compilation, with only here and there an incidental disclosure in return. Yet, each new discovery opened the way for other discoveries beyond; and even after the Lectures, in their present form, were already in type, I gained many fresh facts, which I wish had been earlier available to me. Indeed, I may say that no portion of the volume is of more importance than the Appendix; where are added facts and reasonings bearing directly on well-nigh every main point of the original Lectures.

There is cause for just surprise that the chief facts of this entire subject have been so generally overlooked, in the theological discussions, and in the physio-sociological researches, of the earlier and the later times. Yet this only furnishes another illustration of the inevitably cramping influence of a preconceived fixed theory,-to which all the ascertained

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