BLOOD.
AR 41I. Thyak, 1 NorA.
'Ptak,, . . Wi , Mae.
. . . . I Kbun , Pram.
L'Itu, ..... If Th.% AAJI.
Adi, KARL I /Cala*, . . . .
. . Niriti, Tan.
VI. . . . I.struna. Itattaniu; Itattarn, Blood for blood, the vendetta of the ltaliarts, is the law of most rude populations, hut most of the settled races occupying the south and east of Allia are dwelling under civil laws administered by officers of justice. The Vedas, which all 11110Ra knowledge, enjoin the offering of bloody sacrifices to the gods, and amongst many Saiya sectarians this rite is continued. The non-Hindu aboriginal races also offer bloody sacrifices to demons, and to the Grandma devata, or village tutelary deitim. The investing tika mark of chiefship, placed en the forehead of their Rajput ruler by the lihil, is blood drawn from the arm of a Bldil. The Karen of Burma and the Kyan of Borneo, in swearing brotherhood, drink water in which the blood of the parties has been mixed. The old Mongolians mingled gold and blood in their cup of peace. The custom of the old Hungarians in their Aldo mas (alliance), was to open reciprocally a vein in each other's arms and drink the blood out of one cup. The Turks practised the same observance in their alliances with tho Hungarian Christians, as is noticed by Petchevi's History.
Blood-coloured water is noticed in Exodus vii. 19 ; and Homer alludes to blood rain. In the Red Sea, periodically, a blood-red colour is observ able in the water ; and a similar occurrence was noticed at Picenium, B.C. 323 ; in Italy, A.D. 787 ; in the Valsinian lake, me. 208, mentioned by Livy ; in a Venetian lake, D.C. 586 ; in Lake Wan, A.D. 1110. Pliny mentions a lake near Babylon which had a red colour during eleven days of summer, possibly from a red conferva.
Blood-money, Duja, ARAB., is payable in Lahej by a criminal to the relatives of the murdered perwii ; for wilful murder, 100 female camels, or 1000 Venetian sequins; manslaughter, 700 dollars ; death by misadventure, the culprit is nut im prisoned, but is allowed to appeal to the pity of the charitable for the means of escaping from a cruel death, which the nearest relative inflicts ; should the nearest of kin be a child, the punish ment is postponed until he reach manhood.
Blood - showers is a term given to sub stances of a red colour which occasionally appear ; also what have been called showers of pearls„ of manna, of spiders, of toads, of fish. In India, in 1825, a shower of red fluid at Jeysulmir is men tioned in the Asiatic Journal. In 1828, very heavy rain fell at Augur in Kandesh, accompanied by hail, single pieces of which weighed as much as half a seer. This was followed by drops of red rain, descending from the sky. In 1855, a shower of red rain, or of flesh, as the natives called it. fell near Shikarpur in Sind. Another shower fell in the Jellasoro district over an expanse of above fifty bighas. The carmine colour of snow has been ascertained to be duo to a kind of algae, called Protococcus nivalis or Protococcus hematacoccus. Until lately, much perplexity was occasioned by the same form of organism sometimes appearing red, sometimes green. It is still,.indeed, matter of question whether the protococcus or the hema tacoccus are most nearly allied to the vegetable or to the animal kingdom. It is a simple cell, which lives for itself and by itself; and is dependent upon nothing but a due supply of matter and the appropriate stimuli for their continuance and growth, and for the due performance of all its functions, until its term of life is expired. Klaproth in 1815 ascertained that the red appear ance in the sea was produced by an albuminous vegetable matter.—Jam. Ed. Journ. ii. 830-31 ; Captain Prideaux, the Arab Tribes; Forbes; Vambery, Bokhara, p. 151 ; Moor ; Buist, Cat.