Blood oaths to demonstrate loyalty one to another are a common feature in many cultures. By sharing blood two warriors become symbolic brothers, and are expected to treat each other as family members in all respects. Unlike modern interpretations of blood oaths, where both individuals make cuts and press them together so that their blood mingles, the Scythian oath involved shedding of a blood into a cup. The men then drank the mingled blood and demonstrated their mutual loyalty as brothers. No man was allowed more than three blood brothers, if only to avoid any potential tangles in conflicting obligations to different blood brothers. The custom of drinking the blood also neatly side-stepped any transfer of blood-borne diseases from one man to another by direct cut-to-cut transfer.
