ABSTRACT
Now at that time in Palestine it was the custom for a woman or a girl to take a hen, and a man or a boy a cock, to hold them by their feet and swing the birds round above their heads, while a prayer was addressed to God that He would accept the bird as a sacrifice as of old, before the Temple was burnt. Then the bird was killed for the Feast, and some of it was given to the poor. If a family was well-to-do, every child or member of the household had a hen or a cock for a sacrifice ; if poor, a bird was divided. Then the birds were killed and roasted for the Feast. Everyone tried to have a white bird for the sacrifice, and for months before the Day of Atonement the children in the Colony used to try and rear white cocks and hens. In those days there were not many white ones in Judea, and so they had to do with whatever they could get.
