258 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



possess and to which all outside the kin are strangers. 

 A feeling of solidarity runs through the entire kin, so 

 that it may be said without hyperbole that the kin is 

 regarded as one entire life, one body, whereof each 

 unit is more than metaphorically a member, a limb. 

 The same blood runs through them all, and " the blood 

 is the life." Literally they may not all be descended 

 from a common ancestry. Descent is the normal, the 

 typical, cause of kinship and a common blood. It is 

 the legal presupposition : by birth a child enters a kin 

 for good and ill. But kinship may also be acquired ; 

 and when once it is acquired by a stranger he ranks 

 thenceforth for all purposes as one descended from the 

 common ancestor. To acquire kinship a ceremony 

 must be undergone : the blood of the candidate for 

 admission into the kin must be mingled with that of 

 the kin. This ceremony, no less than the words made 

 use of in various lang uages to describe the members of 

 the kin and their common bond, renders it clear that 

 the bond is the bond of blood. 



The mingling of blood the Blood-covenant as it is 

 called is a simple though repulsive rite. It is suffi- 

 cient that an incision be made in the neophyte's arm 

 and the flowing blood sucked from it by one of the 

 clansmen, upon whom the operation is repeated in turn 

 by the neophyte. Originally, perhaps, all the clans- 

 men assembled as witnesses if not as actual participants 

 of the rite ; and even yet participation by more than 

 one representative is frequently required. The exact 

 form is not always the same. Sometimes the blood is 

 dropped into a cup and diluted with some other drink. 

 Sometimes food eaten together is impregnated with the 

 blood. Sometimes a species of inoculation is practised 



