Blood of the covenant
“There are, indeed, various evidences that the tie of blood-covenanting is reckoned, in the East, even a closer tie than that of natural descent; that a “friend” by this tie is nearer and is dearer, “sticketh closer,” than a “brother” by birth. We, in the West, are accustomed to say, that “blood is thicker than water”; but the Arabs have the idea that blood is thicker than milk, than a mother’s milk. With them, any two children nourished at the same breast are called “milk-brothers,” [9] or “sucking brothers”; [10] and the tie between such is very strong.” (H.C. Trumbull (). THE BLOOD COVENANT. Simplicissimus Book Farm. https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-blood-covenant/id1046756412).