and the Mpongwe. 
95 
and families nearly related ; here again the Hindu 
and the Somal observe the custom rigidly, whilst 
the Jews and Arabs have ever taken to wife their 
first cousins. 4. Sacrifices with blood-sprinkling 
upon altars and door-posts; a superstition almost 
universal, found in Peru and Mexico as in Pales¬ 
tine, preserved in Ashanti and probably borrowed 
by the Hebrews from the African Egyptians. 5. 
The formal and ceremonial observance of new 
moons ; but the Wanyamwezi and other tribes also 
hail the appearance of the lesser light, like the 
Moslems, who, when they sight the Hilal (crescent), 
ejaculate a short prayer for blessings throughout 
the month which it ushers in. 6. A specified 
time of mourning for the dead (common to all 
barbarians as to civilized races), during which their 
survivors wear soiled clothes (an instinctive sign 
of grief, as fine dresses are of joy), and shave their 
heads (doubtless done to make some difference 
from every-day times), accompanied with ceremonial 
purifications (what ancient people has not had some 
such whim ?). 7. The system of Runda or for¬ 
bidden meats; but every traveller has found this 
practice in South as in East Africa, and I noticed 
it among the Somal who, even when starving, will 
not touch fish nor fowl. Briefly, external resem¬ 
blances and coincidences like these could be made 
to establish cousinhood between a cockney and 
a cockatoo; possibly such discovery of Judaism 
