It is a noteworthy fact, that when Herodotus describes the Scythians’ mode of drinking each other’s mingled blood, in their covenanting, he tells of their “cutting covenant” by “striking the body” of the covenanting party. In this case, he employs the words _tamnomenon_ (ταμνομένων) “cutting,” and _tupsantes_ (τύψαντες) “striking,” which are the correspondents, on the one hand of the Hebrew _karath_ (כָּרַת) “to cut,” and on the other hand of the Latin _ferire_, “to strike;” as applied to covenant making.[580] And this would seem to make a tri-lingual “Rosetta Stone” of this statement by Herodotus, as showing that the Hebrew “cutting” of the covenant, and the Latin “striking” of the covenant, is the Greek, the Arabian, the Scythian, and the universal primitive, method of covenanting, by cutting into, or by striking, the flesh of a person covenanting; in order that another may become a possessor of his blood, and a partaker of his life. Yet later, at the same Well of the Seven, another Abimelech came down from Gerar, with “Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his host,” and, prompted by faith, sought a renewal of the covenant with the house of Abraham.[581] It is not specifically declared that Abimelech and Isaac _cut_ a covenant together; but it is said that “they did eat and drink” in token of their covenant relations, and that they “sware one to another.”[582] Apparently they either cut a new covenant, or they confirmed one which their fathers had cut. When Jacob and Laban covenanted together, in “the mountain [the hill-country] of Gilead,” before their final separation, they had their stone-heap of witness between them; such as Herodotus says the Arabs were accustomed to anoint with their own blood, in their covenanting by blood, in his day;[583] for Jacob, perhaps, had more tolerance than Abraham, for perverted religious symbols.[584] “And now let us cut a covenant, I and thou,” said Laban; “and let it be for a witness between me and thee. And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar [a pillar instead of a tree]. And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there on the heap [the Revisers have translated this, _by_ the heap].[585] And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha: but Jacob called it Gilead. And Laban said, This heap is witness between me and thee this day.... God is witness betwixt me and thee.... The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the Fear of his father Isaac. And Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread.”[586] Here again, the cutting of the covenant, and the sharing of a feast in connection with the rite,--the “cutting” and the “eating”--are in accordance with all that we know of the primitive rite, of blood-covenanting in the East, in earlier and in later times.