t was endogamous. The bond
which united the phratry or _curia_ was precisely the same as that of
the _gens_ or clan and the city. It consisted also in a common meal,
which was prepared on the altar, and was eaten with the recitation
of prayers, a part being offered to the god, who was held to be
present. At Athens on feast-days the members of the phratry assembled
round their altar. A victim was sacrificed and its flesh cooked on
the altar, and divided among the members of the phratry, great care
being taken that no stranger should be present. A young Athenian
was presented to the phratry by his father, who swore that the boy
was his son. A victim was sacrificed and cooked on the altar in the
presence of all the members of the phratry; if they were doubtful
of the boy's legitimacy, and hence wished to refuse him admittance,
as they had the right to do, they refused to remove the flesh from
the altar. If they did not do this, but divided and partook of the
flesh with the candidate, he was finally and irrevocably admitted to
the phratry. The explanation of this custom, M. de Coulanges states,
is that food prepared on an altar and eaten by a number of persons
together, was believed to establish between them a sacred tie which
endured through life. [205] Even a slave was to a certain degree
admitted into the family by the same tie of common eating of food. At
Athens he was made to approach the hearth; he was purified by pouring
water on his head, and ate some cakes and fruit with the members of
the family. This ceremony was analogous to those of marriage and
adoption. It signified that the new arrival, hitherto a stranger,
was henceforth a member of the family and participated in the family
worship. [206]

82. The Hindu caste-feasts.

The analogy of Greece and Rome would suggest the probability that
the tie uniting the members of the Indian caste or subcaste is also
participation in a common sacrificial meal, and there is a considerable
amount of evidence to support this view. The Confarreatio or eating
together of the bride and bridegroom finds a close parallel in the
family sacrament of the _Meher_ or marriage cakes, which has already
been described. This would appear formerly to have been a clan rite,
and to have marked the admission of the bride to the bridegroom's
clan. It is obligatory on relations of the families to attend a wedding
and they proceed from great distances to do so, and clerks and other
officia