Excerpt from Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, Vol. 2 of 3: Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend and Law The points in this narrative to which I would call attention are first, the displacement of the elder by the younger son, and, second, the means by which the displace ment was effected. The younger son pretended to be his elder brother by dressing in his elder brother's clothes and by wearing kidskins on his hands and neck for the purpose of imitating the hairiness of his elder brother's skin and to this pretence he was instigated by his mother, who actively assisted him in the make-believe by putting his elder brother's garments on his body and the kidskins on his hands and neck. In this way Jacob, the younger son, succeeded in diverting to himself the paternal blessing which was intended for his elder brother, and thus he served himself heir to his father. It seems possible that in this story there may be preserved the reminiscence of a legal ceremony whereby a younger son was substituted for his elder brother as rightful heir to the paternal inheritance. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.