That the ancient Perfians were addicted to this barbarous practice, there can be no question. When Crofus was brought to Cyrus, the latter commanded him to be fetter'd and place'd on a great pile of wood allready prepare'd, accompany'd by fourteen young Lydians, for a facrifice to fome god, as the first-fruits of his victory.*

Xerxes, in his march toward Greece, haveing come to a place, where bridgees were prepare'd for his passage over the Strymon, call'd The nine ways, the magi took nine of the fons and daughters of the inhabitants, and bury'd them alive, as the manner of the Perfians was: on their arrival, they offer'd a facrifice of white horseës to the river. Amestris, wife of Xerxes, haveing attain❜d to a confiderable age, cause'd fourteen children of the best familys in Perfia to be inter'd alive, for a facrifice to that god who, they fay'd, was beneath the earth.†

than rational, methods, invoke'd the god with one voice, and, leading the captives to the altar, infifted upon their being offer'd up, as the foothfayer had directed." (Plutarchs Life of Themistocles.) Philarchus, according to Porphyry, reported that all the Greeks in common, before they march'd against their enemys, facrifice'd men: and, even, at this day, fays he, who knows not that, toward Megalopolis, in the feast of Jupiter Latiarius, there is a man immolateëd?

* Herodotus, Clio.

+ Herodotus, Polymnia.

The Scythians thought no victim worthy of the goddess Diana, but a human one. They facrifice'd to Mars every hundredth man of their prifoners. At the funeral of their king a certain number of his most beautiful horfeës, and favourite domesticks, were inter'd in, or facrifice'd upon, his grave.‡

Nor were the Romans, even, free from this barbarity, as we are exprefsly told, by Lactantius, that they in his time worship'd Latialis Jupiter with human blood.

The citizens, according to Livy, after the battle of Cannae, facrifice'd a Gaulish man and woman; a Grecian man and woman were, likewise, let down alive in the beast-market into a vault under the ground, ftone'd all about, a place aforetime embrue'd and polluteed with the blood of mankind facrifice'd; but not, he ads, according to the ceremonys and religion of the Romans.§

* Lucian, of facrifices. See alfo, Euripides. Lactan. De falfa religione, c. 21. Eufebius, P. E. I, 4, c. 7.

+ Herodotus, Melpomene.

Idem, ibi.

Divinae infti. L. I; De fal. reli. c. 21. "Even in Rome," fays Tertullian," there refides a god that delights to be regaled with human facrificees."

§ B. 22. Pliny asferts that in the 657th year after the foundation of Rome, in the confulfhip of Cn. Cornelius Lepi

The altar of Diana Orthia, at Lacedaemon, was, by the exprefs command of the oracle, to be fprinkle'd with human blood. The custom, at first, was to facrifice a man by lot, which Lycurgus change'd to the fcourgeing of young men with whips.*

The Arcadians, allfo, ufe'd to fhed man's blood in their divine fervice; and a story is preferve'd by Pliny, of one who, haveing tasteëd of the inwards of a child which had been kil'd in a facrifice to Jupiter Lycæus, was turn'd into a wolf.t

When Alexander drew nigh the city Pellion, which Clytus, the son of Bardyles, had seize'd, the enemy, encamp'd upon the adjacent mountains, offer'd three boys, three maids, and as many black rams, for facrifice.‡

The high priest of Albania, a country near the Caspian fea, pamper'd a man dureing a whole year; and, having anointed him with precious

dus and P. Licinius Crasfus, there pass'd a decree of the senate forbiding expressly the kiling of mankind for facrifice. (B. 30, c. 1.)

* Paufanias, B. 3, c. 16. The oracle, upon another oocafion, order'd the inhabitants.of Potniae to facrifice to Bacchus a boy in the flower of his youth. (Idem, B. 9, c. 8.)

† B. 8, c. 22.

Arrian, B. 1, c. 6..

oil, he facrifice'd him, with other victims, to the moon, who, it seems, was their favourite goddess. Strabo, B. 2, p. 768.

The grand national facrificeës of the Gauls, and Britons, at which the druids, or priests, prefideëd, were frequent and folemn.* A number of miferable wretches, frequently the most virtuous and innocent, pamper'd for the purpose, were inclofe'd in a wicker idol, which, while it was confumeing by fire, feem'd to utter the moft dreadful crys, horrid asfemblage of the fhrieks and groans of the unhapy futterers! to the extravagant joy of the furrounding multitude. They practise'd other methods equally ingenious. Such were the Britons !

"It is reported, that, in the time of building Icolm kil, St. Columba receive'd divine intimation to bury one of his companions alive, as a facrifice necessary to the fuccefs of his undertakeing. It feems the lots doom'd Oran to fo dreadful a destiny. Three days after, Columba open'd the grave to see what might be the fate of his friend.

* Galli Efum, atque Teutatem humano cruore placebant! Lactan. Divinae infli. L. I. De falfa religione, c. 21. "Celtae verò ad haec usque tempora & occidentaliores ferè omnes homicidio facrificabant." Eufebius, De praepa. évan, L. IV.

c. 7.

Oran raife'd his fwiming eyes, and fay'd,

There is no wonder in death, and hel is not as it is reported.' The faint was fo fhock'd by fuch fentiments, that he call'd out in a great hurry, "Earth, earth, on the mouth of Oran! that he may not blab more!' (Gaelic proverbs, Edin. 1785, p. 66.)

Even the mild and benevolent Hindoos were, at a now hapyly distant period, wont to offer human facrificeës to the deftructive quality of the godess Bhavanee, or Nature: They stil offer kids and buffalos. *

* See Wilkinses Notes to the Heetopades, pp. 314, 322, 326. The wife of a Hindoo, unless she prefer a life of infamy, ftil burns herfelf upon the pile of her deceafe'd husband, and, according to Bernier, is, in fome parts, bury'd alive. There can be no doubt that the is, upon this occafion, a propitiatory facrifice. Roger relates that, dureing his refidence at Paliaccata, on the coaft of Coromandèl, a gentleman, of the chetree or military caft, dye'd, leaveing no lefs than fixty wives, all of whom were burn'd alive with his body. (Porte ouverte, 1670, p. 122.) See allfo Struyses Voiages, 1684, pp. 230, 256. This abominable fuperftition feems to prove that there is not in the whole world a fingle body of priests, which has not contributed to the fheding of human blood. (Langlès, Fables et contes Indiens, xix.) Upon thefe facrificees the Engleish governours, (without whose consent they cannot, posfiblely, take place) officeërs, and other natives, and, moft probablely, allfo Engleifh priests, are calm and earnest spectators!