The Peruvians, previously to being governed by their Incas, worshipped a great number of gods, or rather genii. There was no nation, family, city, street, or even house, but had its peculiar gods; and for this particular reason, that they thought none but the god to whom they immediately devoted themselves, was able to assist them in time of need. They worshipped herbs, plants, flowers, trees, mountains, caves, tigers, lions, adders; in fine, every thing that appeared wonderful in their eyes, was thought worthy of adoration.

These ancient idolaters of Peru offered not only the fruits of the earth and animals to these gods, but also their captives, like the rest of the Americans. It was their custom to sacrifice their own children, whenever there was a scarcity of victims.

Some other idolaters offered their own blood to their deities, which they drew from their arms and thighs, according as the sacrifice was more or less solemn; and they even used on extraordinary occasions, to bleed themselves at the tips of their nostrils, or between the eye-brows.

Such was the state of idolatry all over Peru, when the Inca Manco-capac the law-giver of that vast empire, taught the savages the worship of the Sun. From this time, sacrifices of various kinds of animals were offered in honour of the sun, and also cocoa, corn, rich clothes, and a liquor made of water and maize. They always presented the last offering to the sun, in the following manner: when they were very thirsty, they first satisfied their hunger, and afterwards dipped the tip of their finger in the vessel into which the liquor was poured: this being done, they lifted up their eyes to heaven in a very submissive manner; shook that finger on which the drop hung, and offered it to the sun as an acknowledgment for his goodness in providing drink for them. At the same time they gave two or three kisses to the air. This oblation being made they all drank as they thought proper.

Every time they entered their temples, the chief man in the company laid his hand on one of his eye-brows, and whether he tore off any of the hairs or not, he blew it into the air before the idol, as a mark of its being an oblation. They paid the same adoration to trees, and to all those things which a divine virtue had made sacred and religious.

The savages or Indians of the Caribee Islands, if they may be so called, have no words, it is said, to express a Supreme Being; but acknowledge a good and an evil principle, both of which they call Maboia. They be

Caribees.

lieve in a multitude of good spirits, one of whom each savage

appropriates to himself, under the title of Chemen. To these Chemens, they offer the first of their fruits, and sometimes out of gratitude make a feast to their honour. They make better images resembling the form, under which Maboia reveals himself to them, in order to prevent his doing them any harm. They wear these images about their necks, and pretend that they give them ease. They also fast and cut themselves for his sake.

Campeche and Tobasco.

There was formerly at Campeche a square theatre, or scaffold, built of earth and stone, about four cubits high. Upon the theatre was fixed the marble statue of a man, whom two animals of an extraordinary shape seemed ready to tear in pieces. Near this figure, a serpent was also represented, forty-seven feet in length, and of a proportionable thickness, which swallowed up a lion. These two last figures were made of marble like the rest, and enclosed in some measure by pallisadoes. On the pavement were bows and arrows, bones and skulls. This is all we are told by Purchas concerning these figures, which possibly might have some mysterious signification couched under

them.

In the sacrifices made to their idols, by the natives of Tob, they used to rip up the victim's breast and tear out his heart; they afterwards set, or rather enclosed, the bloody body of the victim in a hollow made in a particular part of the lion's neck. The blood of the victim fell into a stone reservoir, on the side of which was placed a stone statue representing a man, who seemed to look steadfastly at the blood of the sacrificed victim. As to the heart, the sacrificing priest, after having torn it out, smeared the idol's face with it, and then threw it into the fire, which was lighted for that purpose.

SEC. VII. RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES AND CUSTOMS OF

AFRICAN TRIBES.

The natives of Africa universally believe in a Supreme Being, and have some ideas of a future state. They address this being by a fetishe or fetish, which is a sort of charm or manner of conducting their worship. The term is often

applied to whatever represents their divinities.

The Negroes of Congo believe in a good and an evil principle, which are both supposed to reside in the sky. The Congo. former sends rain, the latter withholds it; but they do not seem to consider either of them as possessing any influence over human affairs. After death

they all take their place in the sky, and enjoy a happy existence, without any regard being paid to their good or bad actions while here below.

Each town has a grand kissey, or presiding divinity. It is the figure of a man, the body stuck with feathers, rags, and bits of iron, and resembles nothing so much as one of our scarecrows. The chenoo of Cooloo had a kissev so redoubtable that if any person attempted to shoot at it, he would fall down dead, and the flint would drop out of the musket. This powerful divinity was the figure of a man, about two feet high, rudely carved in wood, and covered with rags.

Kolloh is the name of a great spirit who is supposed to reside in the vicinity of Yangroo, in Western Africa. He makes his abode in the woods, and is rarely seen except on mournful occasions, such as the death of the king or of some of their head men, or when a person has been buried without having observed the usual ceremonies of dancing, drinking palm wine, &c. in remembrance of their departed friends.

The Kolloh is made of bamboo sticks in the form of an oval basket, about three feet long, and so deep that it goes on to the man's shoulders. It is covered with a piece of net, and stuck all around with porcupine quills on the nose. has a frightful appearance, and has a great effect in exciting the terror of the inhabitants.

It

A certain man pretends to have some very intimate intercourse with this Beelzebub, and therefore he is called by the spirit to take the Kolloh on his head, and to go about with it on certain occasions to see that the various ceremonies of the country are strictly observed, and if any are absent he seeks them out and drives them to the place of assembly.-He is a faithful servant of the Devil.

The Kolloh-man carries a stick in his hand to show his authority, and to give notice of his coming he rings a bell which is fixed inside of the Kolloh or basket. These Kolloh-men are a set of plunderers who disturb the peace a greatly deceive the ignorant natives.

Whidah.

The fetishes of Whidah may be divided into three classes; the serpent, tall trees, and the sea. The serpent is the most celebrated, the others being subordinate to the power of this deity. This snake has a large round head, beautiful piercing eyes, a short, pointed tongue, resembling a dart: its pace slow and solemn, except when it seizes on its prey, then very rapid; its tail sharp and short, its skin of an elegant smoothness, adorned with beautiful colours, upon a light gray ground: it is amazingly familiar and tame.

Rich offerings are made to this deity; priests and priestesses appointed for its service; it is invoked in extremely wet, dry, or barren seasons; and, in a word, on all the great difficulties and occurrences of life.

The people of Benin believe in an invisible deity, who created heaven and earth, and governs them with absoBenin. lute power; but they conceive it needless to worship him, because he is always doing good without their services. They also believe in a malignant deity, to whom they sacrifice men and animals, to satiate his thirst of blood, and prevent him from doing them mischief. But they have innumerable objects of worship; as elephants' teeth, claws, bones, dead men's heads, or any trifle that chance throws in their way, to which they make a daily offering of a few boiled yams, mixed with palm oil. On great occasions they sacrifice a cock, treating the divinity with the blood only, and reserving the flesh for themselves. Persons of high rank give an annual feast to their gods, at which multitudes of cattle are offered to the idols and eaten by the people. Each offers his own sacrifices, without giving the priests any sort of trouble.

Picart has given a particular account of a ceremony of some tribes in Guinea, around a sacred tree, called the tree of the Fetish. At the foot thereof, says he, they Guinea. set a table, which is embellished below with boughs, wreathed in the form of crowns. The table is covered with palm wine, rice, millet, &c. in order to drink and eat after their service is over, in honour of their Fetishes. The whole day is spent in dancing and capering round the tree of the Fetish, and in singing and drumming upon divers instruments of brass. Their priest frequently sits near the centre of the place before a kind of altar, on which he offers up some sacrifices to the Fetishes. Men, women, and children, sit promiscuously round the celebrant, who reads or pro

nces a kind of homily to them. At the conclusion, he takes a wisp of straw, twisted hard, which he dips into a pot full of some particular liquor, in which there is a serpent. He either besmears, or sprinkles the children with this holy water, mumbling over them a certain form of words. He observes the same ceremony with respect to the altar, and afterwards empties the pot; and then his assistants close the service with some inarticulate, unintelligible sounds, loud acclamations, and clapping of hands. On this solemn day, they wash their faces and bodies with more care and pains than on any other, for they practise ablutions. They wash themselves