CONFEDERATIONS. 1/5 207. The history of unions begins with a more remote connec- iseofconfedera- 'tion or an alliance between neighbors of the sin Greece. same race ; and among such states there could hardly fail to spring up some understanding how their in- habitants were to be treated in each other's markets, what should be done with offenders escaping into the other terri- tory, what reparation should be due for crimes committed by the people of each within the territory of the other. Man could not be true to his nature without some imperfect law of nations even in very early society. The fear of external foes would create more permanent and more express under- standings. If the need of mutual defence were more than a mere passing one, this would help on the feeble beginnings of union. Religious festivals, the gathering of all the com- munities around a common shrine would cement the union, either because common religious rites formed a common bond to strengthen a political association formed afterwards, or because the political bond took hold of the religious nature and instituted new religious ties. All the ancient gatherings of tribes or states were cemented by the festivals of religion ; and on the occasions when the people met together, other usages might arise — fairs, musical and gymnastic contests, everything by which man expresses the joy of his nature when he meets with his fellows. There were many such gatherings in Greece, of which we know a little and but little. Leaving most of them to the antiquarian and the scholar, we shall say a word or two about the most important. Several of them are called by the name of amphictyoni&, or meeting of those who lived in the neigh- borhood, answering in derivation very nearly to our Anglo- Saxon neighbor, i. e., a cultivator in the vicinity.* All such i * From neah, near, and gabur^ cultivator, from buan to till, to in* habit. TrepiKTiovcs, used by Homer and only in the plural, signifies simply the neighbors. d/A^umW and not — wov, was probably the original form, still occurring from KTL- (<cn'Łu>), to found, settle, build.