From the Rev. Dr. Marcus Jastrow, [307]. From Professor Dr. Herman V. Hilprecht, [309]. From Professor Dr. Fritz Hommel, [313]. From Professor Dr. A.H. Sayce, [314]. From Professor Dr. W. Max Müller, [315]. From Professor Dr. C.P. Tiele, [317]. From Professor Dr. E. Washburn Hopkins, [318]. From the Rev. Dr. William Elliot Griffis, [319]. From Professor Dr. John P. Mahaffy, [324]. From Professor Dr. William A. Lamberton, [326]. From Professor Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, [328]. From the Rev. Dr. Edward T. Bartlett, [329]. From Professor Dr. T.K. Cheyne, [330]. Additional from Professor Dr. Fritz Hommel, [333].
THE THRESHOLD COVENANT.
I.
PRIMITIVE FAMILY ALTAR.
1. A BLOOD WELCOME AT THE DOOR.
The primitive altar of the family would seem to have been the threshold, or door-sill, or entrance-way, of the home dwelling-place. This is indicated by surviving customs, in the East and elsewhere among primitive peoples, and by the earliest historic records of the human race. It is obvious that houses preceded temples, and that the house-father was the earliest priest. Sacrifices for the family were, therefore, within or at the entrance of the family domicile.
In Syria and in Egypt, at the present time, when a guest who is worthy of special honor is to be welcomed to a home, the blood of a slaughtered, or a “sacrificed,” animal is shed on the threshold of that home, as a means of adopting the new-comer into the family, or of making a covenant union with him. And every such primitive covenant in blood includes an appeal to the protecting Deity to ratify it as between the two parties and himself.[[1]] While the guest is still outside, the host takes a lamb, or a goat, and, tying its feet together, lays it upon the threshold of his door. Resting his left knee upon the bound victim, the host holds its head by his left hand, while with his right he cuts its throat. He retains his position until all the blood has flowed from the body upon the threshold. Then the victim is removed, and the guest steps over the blood, across the threshold; and in this act he becomes, as it were, a member of the family by the Threshold Covenant.
The flesh of the slaughtered animal is usually given to the neighbors, although in the case of humbler persons it is sometimes used for the meal of the guest in whose honor it is sacrificed. It may be a larger offering than a lamb or a goat, or it may be a smaller one. Sometimes several sheep are included in the sacrifice. Again, the offering may be a bullock or a heifer, or simply a fowl or a pair of pigeons. The more costly the gift, in proportion to the means of the host, the greater the honor to him who is welcomed.