  Given the set of paths through a digraph, the result of uniformly deleting
some vertices and identifying others along each path is coherent in such a way
as to yield the set of paths through another digraph, called a \emph{path
abstraction} of the original digraph. The construction of path abstractions is
detailed and relevant basic results are established; generalizations are also
discussed. Connections with random digraphs are also illustrated.
