When first a twain were made one in a covenant of blood, the threshold altar of the race was hallowed as a place where the Author of life met and blessed the loving union. And from this beginning there was the natural development of religious rites and ceremonies, in the family, in the temple, and in the domain, as shown alike in the history of the human race and in the main teachings of both the Old Testament and the New.
Flowing blood is widely deemed essential to the covenant by which two are made one in the marriage relation. This is peculiarly the case among those primitive peoples where young maidens are guarded with jealous care, and are given in marriage at a very early age. In the thought of such peoples there is no binding covenant without blood, in the family relation.[524] And a bloody hand stamp on the cloth of testimony is the primitive certificate of the marriage covenant.
Facts in illustration of this truth are numerous in the nuptial customs of Syria, Egypt, China, Dahomey, Liberia, Europe, Central America, Samoa, and other widely different regions. A few of these facts are given in the Appendix for the benefit of scientific students, in a language better suited than English for the presentation of such details.[525]
If the view here given of the origin of this rite of the Threshold Covenant be correct, there will be found traces of the truth in the different religions of mankind. And this is the case, as shown in religious literatures, in history, and in primitive customs and beliefs.
The most ancient expression of the religious thought and feeling of the Aryan races is found in the Vedas and their accompanying literature. The Brahmanas, in this literature, deal with the sacrificial element in public and family worship, and with the rites and ceremonies pertaining to religion. In the description of the construction of the household altars and the high altars, there is abundant evidence that the woman is recognized as the primitive altar, and that the form of the woman is made the pattern of the altar form.
It is distinctly declared as to the shape of the altar, standing east and west, that it “should be broader on the west side, contracted on the middle, and broad again on the east side; for thus shaped they praise a woman: ‘broad about the hips, somewhat narrower between the shoulders, and contracted in the middle [or about the waist].’” Again, it is said, in explanation, that “the altar (_vedi_, feminine) is female, and the fire (_agni_, masculine) is male.”[526] This identifying of the altar with the woman, of the offering with the man, and of their union with worship and covenanting, is repeatedly found in the Brahmanas.[527]