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brethren to eat bread.” Was not the ‘eating bread ”’ also 
the same sacrificial feast? Noah, also, on coming out of the 
ark, “ builded an altar,’ and took of every clean beast, and 
of every clean fowl (7.e., such as were eaten), and offered burnt 
offermgs (the same word as above, oloth) on the altar.” 
Melchizedek, also, perhaps one of the old Hittite race, was 
both priest (t.e., sacrificer) and king. The offering itself of 
tithes was a part of the old sacrificial system—preserved both 
in India and among both Greeks and Romans; and the 
bringing forth of bread and wine may have had a sacramental 
aspect, though I would not insist upon it. Lastly, the history 
of Abel takes the custom of sacrifice into the first home, as 
we believe it to be, of the human family. 
The history of the Hindu sacrificial system is a long subject ; 
but it may be sufficient here to point out, that it preserves, 
from times no doubt antecedent to Moses, many of the salient 
features of such a system as that of the Hebrews. The sacred 
sacrificial fire 1s one of the most prominent marks of early 
Hinduism. ‘The sacrifices were offered at marked seasons, 
some daily and in connexion with meals morning and 
evening; sacrificial observances were, and are, customary, 
even at the daily meal at home as well as in the temples; 
others are offered at full moon and new moon; others at times 
of harvest. A portion of the offering in the temples is placed 
on the altar-fire, the rest eaten, as in the case of the Hebrews. 
The idea of sacrifice is propitiation, and the forgiveness of 
sin in connexion with it still lingers, though the petitions 
are commonly for temporal, earthly blessings. The hymns of 
the Liq-Veda were composed for use at the sacrificial rites. 
The offering is, indeed, usually of the fruits of the ground, 
such as the Minchah offerings of Moses ; but bloody sacrifices 
are not unknown, and those that still exist are of food- 
animals, though the ancient sacrifice of the horse, common to 
the Hindu and the Huropean branch of the Aryan family, 
may be taken as an exception. The Soma lbation, though 
long more or less of a mystery, is especially prominent, and 
seems analogous to the libations of wine appointed by Moses ; 
the absence of wine from the Hindu sacrificial rites, as well 
as the predominance of the Minchah offerings, are, perhaps, 
to be explained from natural causes, India never having been, 
in any prominent sense, a grape-growing country, and the 
fruits of the earth most probably abounding greatly beyond 
the flocks and the herds; a fact that will, no doubt, account 
for the high value set upon the cow and her milk in early 
times, as well as for the vegetarian diet of the people of that 
country which still obtains. 
