fay'd to do it often, adorning their houfees with fculs and teeth, 'to fhew how much they have honour'd their authour, and labour'd to avert his chastifement. Several, in low circumftanceës, wil club to buy a Bifayan CHRISTIAN flave, or any one that is to be fold cheap, that all may partake the benefit of the execution. So at Kalagany in Mindano, when the god of the mountain gives no brimftone, they facrifice fome old flave to appease his wrath."*

The Carthaginians, a brave and polish'd people, who rival'd the Romans in arms, and excel'd them in arts, facrifice'd their children to Saturn; fometimes finglely upon the altar, in confequence of a vow, or for their private advantage; fometimes in numbers, by throwing them into a large fire, or inclofeing them in a red-hot ftatue of their favourite deity, for the general good. The latter of these ufagees was generally the fubject of a great and folemn festival; drums and trumpets play'd dureing the ceremony, and every thing was conducted with the utmost decorum. Those who had no children themselves, or who had any they were un

Forrests Voyage to New-Guinea, p. 368.

wiling to part with, bought, borrow'd, or ftole them, from others. This laudable practice was, likewife, common to the Phoenicians and Cananaeans.

The ancient Peruvians facrifice'd men and women of all ageës, whom they had takeën in war and some nations amongst them fo far exceeded the reft in inhumanity that they offer'd not onely their enemys, but, on fome occafions, their very children to their idols. The manner of these facrificees was to rip open the breafts of the miferable victims while they were yet alive, and fo tear out their heart and lungs, with the blood of which they fprinkle'd the idol; then they inspected the lungs and heart to take an

* Dureing a fiege, two hundred of the best familys in Carthage were facrifice'd in one day, to appease the refentment of the deity, incur'd by the prostitution of borrow'd children: upward of three hundred citizens, who had been guilty of this impious fraud, at the fame time offering themfelves as expiatory victims. The statue of the god fometimes appear'd with a fmileing countenance, to encourage the children to trust themselves on his hand, whence they immediately fel through an opening, into a deep firey furnace. In fome parts of Africa, as we learn from Minucius Felix, mothers facrifice'd their own children; and, left they fhould offend the compasfionate god with a mournful victim, ftop'd their mouths with kisfes and caresses. Tertullian fays the fame thing, obferveing that" even now thefe villainys are done in private."

omen of good or bad, and know whether the facrifice were acceptable: they then burnt the entrails, and ate the flesh "with great joy and festivity," though it were that of their own child, or other relation.*

In the provinces of Paucura and Arma they facrifice'd two men to the devil every Tuesday.t

*De la Vega, Royal com. of Peru, p. 7. See allfo Ciezas Travels, pp. 131, 147." When any of the lords of these valleys dye'd," fays the latter," they were lamented for many days, their wives cut off their hair, the best belov'd among them kil❜d themselves, and they made a vast grave or tomb... Within it was a vault in which they lay'd the dead body, and with it gold, and the arms he had; then makeing his most beautiful wives, and fome boys that serve'd him, drunk, they put them alive into the vault, where they left them, that their lord might go to the devil with company." (p. 34.) This practice, from other parts of Ciezas book (a curious and interefting performance), appears to have been general. (See pp. 113, 118, 131, 137, 159.) It ftil prevails in Guinea. (See Duquesnes Voyage to the E. Indies, p. 122; Smith's Voyage, p. 226; Norrises Memoirs of Bosfa Abadee, king of Dabomy, p. 130.) At the funeral of a Yakout prince, his favourite horse, and another, the best of his ftud, have their throats cut over the corpfe. This bloody libation, fays our author, is the homage pay'd to his attachment to these animals, who are fuppofe'd to follow him into the other world, where it is imagine'd he wil again be able to enjoy them. (Lesfeps, Travels in Kamtschatka, II, 311.) There can be little doubt that his wives and favourite flaves once bore them company, Ciezas Travels, p. 53.

Thefe bloody rites of worship appear to be prevalent throughout all the wide extenfive ilands of the pacifick ocean.* "We were inform'd," fays captain Cooke, fpeaking of the inhabitants of Tongataboo, one of the Friendlyiles, "that, in about three months, there would be perform'd, on the fame account [i. e. the kings fon being permited to eat with his father], a far more important and grander folemnity; on which occafion, not onely the tribute of Tongataboo, but that of Hapaee, Vavaoo, and of all the other ilands would be brought to the chief, and confirm'd more awfully, by facrificeing ten human victims from amongst the inferior fort of people. A horrid folemnity indeed!" exclaims this great man," and which is a most significant inftance of the influence of gloomy and ignorant fuperftition, over the minds of one of the most benevolent and humane nations upon earth. On inquireing," he tels us, "into the reafon of fo barbarous a practice, they onely fay'd, that it was a necessary part of the Natche; and that, if they omited it, the deity would certainly destroy their king." We have an account, from the fame authority, of a human facrifice in Attahooroo,

*Voyage into the pacifick ocean, II.

+Ibi. I, 351.

one of the Society-iles, where the natives, next day, facrifice'd a pig: It is pretty much the fame. A few days after they had another human facrifice. "This fecond inftance, within the course of a few days, was too melancholy a proof, how numerous the victims of this bloody fuperftition are amongst this [otherwife] humane people." He "counted no less than fortynine fkuls of former victims, lyeing before the morai, where he' faw one more aded to the number:" and, from the fculs haveing fuffer'd little change from the weather, infers "that no great length of time had elapfe'd, fince, at leaft, this confiderable number of unhapy wretches had been offer'd upon this altar of blood." fhort, every appearance led our people to believe that this barbarous practice was very generalt; and we find it to obtain univerfally amongst the inhabitants of the Sandwich ilands.§

"Tantum Religio potuit fuadere malorum !"

* Ibi, II, 53, 57.

+ Ibi, II, 41.

‡ Ibi, II, 203.

In

§ Ibi, III, 132, 161. See more on this fubject in Porphyrys Treatife of abftinence, B. 2; Cyril againft Julian, B. 4; Lactantius, B. 1, c. 21; Eufebius, De præ. evan. B. 4, c. 7 ; and in Voltaires Dictionnaire philofophique, article Anthropo phages.