Less in the Grecian deities than in the customs in their honour, may we perceive certain traces of oriental superstition.

We recognise the usages of the elder creeds in the chosen sites of their temples-- the habitual ceremonies of their worship.

It was to the east that the supplicator turned his face, and he was sprinkled, as a necessary purification, with the holy water often alluded to by sacred writers as well as profane--a typical rite entailed from Paganism on the greater proportion of existing Christendom.

Nor was any oblation duly prepared until it was mingled with salt--that homely and immemorial offering, ordained not only by the priests of the heathen idols, but also prescribed by Moses to the covenant of the Hebrew God.

[44] XV.