The conjecture is probable, that the conversion of the Erani into charitable institutions was matter of accident. At first it seems clear, as I have observed already, that their object was sacrifice, feasting, and pleasure. But it sometimes happened that, of the funds subscribed, some portion would, after their objects had been fulfilled, remain; and if, when this was the case, any member of the club happened to fall into distress, it was perfectly natural to think of applying this surplus to his benefit.[312] From this the step was easy to subscribing expressly for the purpose of relieving indigent members, which, at length, was the practice, though the gradations by which they arrived at it have not been accurately marked.[313] Arrian has left a curious account of a Celtic eranos established by a Hunting Club in honour of Artemis,[314] to whom solemn sacrifice was annually offered up. A fund was created by the members of the club in the following manner: every one who caught a hare paid into the treasury two oboli: the capturer or destroyer of a fox a drachma, the fox being a mischievous animal and fatal to the hare; they therefore considered his destruction in the light of a triumph over an enemy. The sportsman who took a roebuck (δορκὰς), which among them was the noblest game, and the largest animal hunted, paid four drachmæ. On the birth-day of the goddess the treasury was opened, and a victim, whether a sheep, a she-goat, or a calf, according to their means, was purchased. Sacrifice was then offered, after which both men and dogs regaled themselves with a banquet. Bitches were on this day crowned with flowers, to show that the feast was celebrated in their behalf.[315] ----- Footnote 312: Salmas. de Usur. c. iii. p. 50. Footnote 313: Cf. Plin. Epist. x. 93, seq. Van Holst, de Eran. p. 43. Footnote 314: The Thiasi, &c., among the Greeks, appear all to have had their patron divinities, of whom the most common were Heracles, Phœbos-Apollo, and Dionysos. This circumstance has been noticed by Vandale: Plerumque, (sicut ὀργεώνων collegia) cœtus ac fraternitates Baccho, Herculi, Apollini, aliisve Diis consecratæ: quibus Diis ab harum fratriarum membris, ut peculiaribus patronis sacrificabatur: atque hinc convivia inter φράτορας celebrabantur: ad quæ communes illi sumptus sive impensas pariter conferebant. Dissert. ix. p. 730. Footnote 315: Arrian de Venat. c. xxxiii. p. 383. Schneid. -----