. . . . . . . . . .
“A scrap is for our compact good.
Thou under-signest merely with a drop of blood.”
. . . . . . . . . .
“Blood is a juice of very special kind.”[188]
Even “within modern memory in Europe,” there have been traces of the
primitive rite of covenanting with God by the proffer of one’s blood.
In the Russian province of Esthonia, he who would observe this rite,
“had to draw drops of blood from his fore finger,” and at the same
time to pledge himself in solemn covenant with God. “I name thee [I
invoke thee] with my blood, and [I] betroth thee [I entrust myself to
thee] with my blood,”--was the form of his covenanting. Then he who had
given of his blood in self-surrendering devotedness, made his confident
supplications to God with whom he had thus covenanted; and his prayer
in behalf of all his possessions was: “Let them be blessed through my
blood and thy might.”[189]
Thus, in ancient Egypt, in ancient Canaan, in ancient Mexico, in modern
Turkey, in modern Russia, in modern India, and in modern Otaheite; in
Africa, in Asia, in America, in Europe, and in Oceanica: Blood-giving
was life-giving. Life-giving was love-showing. Love-showing was a
heart-yearning after union in love and in life and in blood and in very
being. That was the primitive thought in the primitive religions of all
the world.