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 83 HISTORY OF GREECE. greater tutelary force than really belongs to them, beneficent, indeed, in a high degree, with reference to their own appropriate period, but .serving as a very imperfect compensation for the im- potence of the magistrate, and for the absence of any all-per- vading sympathy or sense of obligation between man and man. We' best appreciate their importance when we compare the Ho- meric society with that of barbarians like the Thracians, who tattooed their bodies, as the mark of a generous lineage, sold their children for export as slaves, considered robbery, not merely as one admissible occupation among others, but as the only honorable mode of life ; agriculture being held contemptible, and above all, delighted in the shedding of blood as a luxury. Such were the Thracians in the days of Herodotus and Thucy- dides : and the Homeric society forms a mean term between that which these two historians yet saw in Thrace, and that which they witnessed among their own civilized countrymen. 1 party to threaten the criminal, holding all sorts of arms to his throat, and at last to consent to accept his ransom." Concerning the influence of these two distinct tendencies devoted per- sonal friendship and implacable animosities among the Illyrico-Sclavonian population, see Cypricn Robert, Les Slaves de la Turquie, ch. vii. pp. 42-46, and Dr. Joseph Miiller, Albanian, Rumelien, und die CEsterreichisch-Mon- tencgrenische Griinze, Prag. 1844, pp. 24-25. "It is for the virtue of hospitality (observes Goguet, Origin of Laws, etc. vol. i. book vi. ch. iv.), that the primitive times are chiefly famed. But, in my opinion, hospitality was then exercised, not so much from generosity and greatness of soul, as from necessity. Common interest probably gave rise to that custom. In remote antiquity, there were few or no public inns : they entertained strangers, in order that they might render them the same service, if they happened to travel into their country. Hospitality was reciprocal. When they received strangers into their houses, they acquired a right of being received into theirs again. This right was regarded by the ancient* as sacred and inviolable, and extended not only to those who had acquired it, but to their children and posterity. Besides, hospitality in these times could not be attended with much expense: men travelled but little. In a word, the modern Arabians prove that hospitality may consist with the greatest vices, and that this species of generosity is no decisive evidence of goodness of heart, or rectitude of manners." The book of Genesis, amidst many other features of resemblance to tho Homeric manners, presents that of ready and exuberant hospitality to the itranger. 'Respecting the Thracians. comuarc Herodot. v. 1 1 ; Thurydid. vii