The Blood Covenant; A Primitive Rite and Its Bearing on Scripture  (English, Paperback, Trumbull Henry Clay)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LOVE-SHOWING BY BLOOD-LETTING. 85 9. OTHER GLEAMS OF THE RITE. In this last cited illustration, from Uarda, there would, at first glance, seem to be the covenant proffered, rather than the covenant entered into; the covenant all on one side, instead of the mutual covenant. But this is, if it were possible, only a more unselfish and a more trustful mode than the other, of covenanting by blood; of pledging the life, by pledging the blood, to one who is already trusted absolutely. And this mode of proffering the covenant of blood, or of pledging one's self in devotedness by the giving of one's blood, is still a custom in the East; as it has been in both the East and the West, from time immemorial. For example, in a series of illustrations of Oriental manners, prepared under the direction of the French ambassador to Turkey, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, there appears a Turkish lover gashing his arm in the presence of his lady-love, as a proof of his loving attachment to her; and the accompanying statement is made, that the relative flow of blood thus devoted indicates the measure of affection—or of affectionate devotedness.1 A custom akin to this was found in Otaheite, when the South Sea Islands were first visited by Englishmissionaries. The measure of love, in time of joy or in time of grief, was indicated by the measure of blood drawn from the person of the loving one. Particularly was this the case with the women; perhaps because they, in Otaheite as elsewhere, are more loving in their nature, and readier to give of their very life in love. 1 Ferriol's Recueil tie cent Estampes representant differentes Nations du Levant, Carte 43, and Explication, p. 16. " When a woman takes a husband," says a historian of the first missionary work in Otaheite, " she i...