THE HOLY GRAVES. 429 



master of the clan, and professed to receive the com- 

 mands of the deceased. For the first time the 

 chiefs were able to exercise power without employing 

 force ; but this power had also its limits. In the 

 first place the chief feared he would be punished by 

 the ghost if he injured the people over whom he 

 ruled, and there were always prophets or seers who 

 could see visions and dream dreams when the mind of 

 the people was excited against the chief. By means 

 therefore of religion, which at first consisted only in 

 the fear of ghosts, the government of the clan was 

 improved ; savage liberty or license was restrained ; 

 the young trembled before the old, whom previously 

 they had eaten as soon as they were useless. Religion 

 was also of service in uniting separated clans. In the 

 forest, food was scanty ; as soon as a clan expanded it 

 was forced to divide, and the separated part pursued 

 an orbit of its own. Savage dialects change almost 

 day by day ; the old people can always speak a lan- 

 guage which their grandchildren do not understand, 

 and so, in the course of a single generation, the two 

 clans become foreigners and foes to one another. But 

 when ghost-worship had been established, the members 

 of the divided clans resorted to the holy graves at cer- 

 tain seasons of the year to unite with the members of 

 the parent clan in sacrificing to the ancestral shades ; 

 the season of the pilgrimage was made a Truce of 

 God ; a fair was held, at which trade and competitive 

 amusements were carried on. Yet still the clans or 

 tribes had little connection with one another, except- 

 ing at that single period of the year. It was for war 

 to continue the work which religion had begun. Some- 

 times the tribes uniting invaded a foreign country, 

 and founded an empire of the kind which has already 



