ORDINARY MEETING.* 

 Commander CI. P. Heath, R.N., in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and the following elections 

 were announced : — 



Members :— Surgeon-General S. B. Partridge, F.R.C.S.E., CLE., Kent ; 

 Rev. E. Blakeslee, D.D., United States ; Eev. L. T. Townsend, D.D., 

 LL.D., United States. 



Life Associate : — J. D. Logan, Esq., South Africa. 



Associates : — W. D. Drake Brockman, Esq., Kent ; T. Garnet, Esq., 

 Kent ; Rev. J. Hall, Uoncaster ; H. Hutton, Esq., Rhodesia ; Rev. 

 W. H. Hauham, Natal; Rev. W. Maxon, D.D., United States; 

 J. Rutland, Esq., New Zealand ; Rev. M. Rainsford, M.A., London ; 

 Rev. G. R. Thornton, M.A., London ; Miss S. Waller-Lewis, London. 



The following paper was then read liy the author : — 



TITHE-GIVING AMONGST ANCIENT PAGAN 

 NATIONS. By the Reverend Henry Lansdell, 

 D.D., M.V.I., M.R.A.S., F.R.G.S. 



BY ancient Pagan nations is meant, in this paper, the early 

 Egyptians, the Babylonians, Phoenicians, Arabians, 

 and certain Semitic peoples of Western Asia, together 

 with the Greeks, Romans, and some few other ,'nations of 

 Pagan Europe. The object of our inquiry is to learn, if 

 possible, how far these heathen nations recognised it as a 

 chity to offer a part of their property to their gods, and in 

 what proportion they did so. 



AVe commence then with Egypt, where we read of first- 

 fruits being offered to the gods so far back as the thirteenth 

 dynasty (or say 2,500 years before the Christian era). 

 Dr. Brugsch, speaking of the tomb of the high priest Anubis 

 at Lycopolis, says : 



" [Anubis] takes occasion for fixing the kind and number of 

 the sacrifices ; he speaks of the feast-days on wliich they are 

 to be ofiered, and gives us evidence, for the first time in an 

 Egyptian inscription, that the ancient inhabitants of the Nile 



* December 6th, 1897. 



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