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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.f

* 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 ferve'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 beft 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;

These 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 necesfary 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 instance, within the course of a few days, was too melancholy a proof, how numerous the victims of this bloody superstition are amongst this [otherwise] humane people."* He "counted no lefs than fortynine fkuls of former victims, lyeing before the morai, where 'he' faw one more aded to the number:" and, from the fculs haveing suffer'd little change from the weather, infers" that no great length of time had elapfe'd, fince, at least, 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 general; 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

4;

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

Who firft taught fouls enflave'd, and realms undone,

Th' enormous faith of many made for one;

That proud exception to all Natures laws,
T'invert the world, and counter-work its caufe?
Foree firft made conqueft, and that conqueft, law;
'Til fuperftition taught the tyrant awe,

Then fhare'd the tyranny, then lent it aid,

And gods of conqu'rors, flaves of fubjects made.
She 'midft the light'nings blaze and thunders found,
When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground,
She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray,
To pow'r unfeen, and mightyer far than they :
She, from the rending earth, and bursting fkys,
Saw gods defcend, and fiends infernal rise:
Here fix'd the dreadful, there the blefs'd abodes;
Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods;
Gods partial, changeful, pasfionate, unjuft,
Whose attributes were rage, revenge or luft;
Such as the fouls of cowards might conceive,
And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe.
Zeal then, not charity, became the guide,

And hel was built on spite, and heaven on pride.
Then facred feem'd th' aetherial vault no more;
Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore:
Then firft the flamen tafteëd liveing food;
Next his grim idol fmear'd with human blood;
With heavens own thunders fhook the world below,
And play'd the god an engine on his foe.*

Popes Essay on man, ver. 241, &c.

CHAP. VI.

HUMAN FLESH THE CONSEQUENCE OF ANIMAL

FOOD.

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As human facrificeës were a natural effect of that fuperftitious cruelty which first produce'd the flaughter of animals, fo is it equally natural that thofe accustom'd to eat the brute, fhould not long abstain from the man: more especially as, when toasted or broil'd on the altar, the appearance, favour, and tafte of both would be nearly, if not entirely, the fame. But, from whatever cause it may be deduce'd, nothing can be more certain than that the eating of human flesh has been a practice, in many parts of the world, from a very remote period, and is fo, in some, at this day. That it is a confequence of the use of animal food there can be no doubt, as it would be impossible to find an inftance of it among people who were accustom'd folely to a vegetable diet. The progrefs of cruelty is rapid. Habit renders it familiar, and hence it is deem'd natural.

The man who, accustom❜d to live on roots and vegetables, first devour'd the flesh of the smallest

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