This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. Minor errors or inconsistencies in punctuation and formatting have been silently corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any other textual issues encountered during its preparation. The few Hebrew words and phrases in the text cannot be correctly rendered in this media format. The Hebrew characters are therefore replaced with a direct transliteration rendered in a bold font. Each word is transliterated by the author as well. There were no vowel marks in the text. Footnotes have been resequenced to be unique, and were moved to the end of the chapter or section. Any references to those notes in the text have been amended as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE THRESHOLD COVENANT OR THE BEGINNING OF RELIGIOUS RITES BY H. CLAY TRUMBULL Author of “Kadesh-barnea,” “The Blood Covenant,” “Studies in Oriental Social Life,” etc. NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 1896 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ COPYRIGHT, 1896 BY H. CLAY TRUMBULL ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PREFACE. This work does not treat of the origin of man’s religious faculty, or of the origin of the sentiment of religion; nor does it enter the domain of theological discussion. It simply attempts to show the beginning of religious rites, by which man evidenced a belief, however obtained, in the possibility of covenant relations between God and man; and the gradual development of those rites, with the progress of the race toward a higher degree of civilization and enlightenment. Necessarily the volume is not addressed to a popular audience, but to students in the lessons of primitive life and culture.