Thus driven forth from Eden, and re-commencing under new and altered circumstances their course of probation, Adam and Eve in due time became the parents of two sons, CAIN (_gotten_, or _acquired_), and ABEL (_breath_, _transitoriness_). From their earliest years the most opposite tendencies distinguished the brothers. The mysterious rite of sacrifice, which meets us at the very threshold of Sacred History, and which, it is supposed, not without probability, the Almighty Himself instituted, when He made for the first pair _coats of skins, and clothed them_ (Gen. iii. 21), became the occasion of a fatal quarrel between them. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, Abel of the firstlings of his flock, an offering unto the Lord. The offering of Abel was accepted, that of Cain rejected. The reason for this distinction cannot be pronounced with absolute certainty. Either the offering of Abel was a free and bounteous presentation of the best that he had, while that of Cain was merely commonplace and perfunctory, or Abel brought his offering in a spirit of faith, and trustful acquiescence in a divinely-instituted though mysterious command (Heb. xi. 4), a motive which the offering of his elder brother lacked. Whatever was the precise reason of the distinction, it roused all Cain’s latent jealousy, and he became his brother’s murderer (1 Joh. iii. 12). For thus shedding _righteous blood_ (Matt. xxiii. 35) he was condemned by the Almighty to perpetual banishment from the region of Eden. Fearful of vengeance from the other children of Adam, whose family we may infer from the mention of Cain’s wife had largely increased, he feared to depart before he received from the Almighty a special sign or pledge of security in the land of his banishment[7]. This having been granted, he removed into the region of Nod (_exile_), and there became the ancestor of numerous descendants, the heads of whom are enumerated to the sixth generation, under the names of Enoch, Irad, Mehu-jael, Methu-sael, and Lamech. In this region, too, he built the earliest city of which we have any record, and called it _Enoch_, after the name of his eldest son. The Cainite families were distinguished for their attention to the development of the arts and pleasures of life. As Cain built the first city, so Lamech instituted polygamy, while of his three sons JABAL introduced the nomadic life, JUBAL the use of musical instruments, and TUBAL-CAIN the art of working in metals (Gen. iv. 16–24).