The ceremonial encirclement of the altar, whatever the form of the encircling procession, is sufficiently attested in the Old Testament, though the text is uncertain in three of the passages cited. The usage in later days among the Jews must be regarded as the continuance of ancient custom. The analogy of the encirclement of a city is appropriate in this connexion. The object of the encircling procession round a city seems to be that of “devoting” all that is within it, which thereby becomes _taboo_. The encirclement of the altar is an act of consecration, _i.e._ of the sacrifice upon it. This explanation of the rite is suggested by the analogous custom among the Arabs of encircling a sacrificial victim. The contention that the encircling procession was a symbolic representation of the movement of the heavenly bodies does not explain why it should take place round a _sacrificial victim_. The rite seems more likely to have had the object of consecration; and this receives confirmation from the instance recorded by Lucian among the Syrians who perambulated their gods round the sacrificial victims; this can scarcely have had any other meaning than that of sanctifying all within the divine circle traced by the gods. The dance round a sacred object must have been very common among the Greeks, judging by the large number of representations of it which have come down to us; the Cyprus “finds” are full of interest. Those which represent the dance round a person who accompanies it on a Pan’s-pipe probably portrays the kind of dancing which took place at festivals when numbers of such groups were formed. Such dances must often have degenerated into mere “fun”; but that they originally had a serious side and were performed with the single purpose of doing something pleasing in the sight of a god or goddess, does not admit of doubt. The representations may well reflect one form of dancing at Israelite festivals. Among the Greeks we have direct evidence of these “ring” dances being performed by men and women together; and it is known that this led at times to unseemly licence. What little evidence we have on the subject so far as the Israelites were concerned points to the fact that the sexes danced separately; whether this was always so must be left undetermined. The examples of the dance round the sacred tree are instructive; it was undoubtedly practised by all peoples among whom trees were objects of worship, and therefore in all probability among the Israelites. The ἀμφιδρόμια, or purificatory rite of running round new-born infants, practised by the Greeks and Romans, had no parallel among the Israelites, so far as we know. But the ritual _lustratio_ of the Romans may well throw light on the Israelite ritual of encircling the altar, referred to above.