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 of a coiled serpent, fastened to the tail of the vessel," and so he represents it on the black stone pipe. Nay, a savage's belief that beasts are on his own level is so literal, that he actually makes blood-covenants with the lower animals, as he does with men, mingling his gore with theirs, or smearing both together on a stone; while to bury dead animals with sacred rites is as usual among the Bedouins and Malagasies today as in ancient Egypt or Attica. In the same way the Ainos of Japan, who regard the bear as a kinsman, sacrifice a bear sacramentally once a year. But, to propitiate the animal and his connections, they appoint him a "mother," an Aino girl, who looks after his comforts, and behaves in a way as maternal as possible. The bear is now a kinsman, ὁμομήτριος, and cannot avenge himself within the kin. This, at least, seems to be the humour of it. In Lagarde's Religiæ Juris Ecclesiastici Antiquissimæ a similar Syrian covenant of kinship with insects is described. About 700 A.D., when a Syrian garden was infested by caterpillars, the maidens were assembled, and one caterpillar was caught. Then one of the virgins was "made its mother," and the creature was buried with due lamentations. The "mother" was then brought to the spot where the pests were, her companions bewailed her, and the caterpillars perished like their chosen kinsman, but without extorting revenge. Revenge was out of their reach. They had been brought within the kin of their foes, and there were no Erinnyes,