Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/147

 *Thelr abft aining from blood. 135

To preferve his medical credit with-the pepple, he at lad afcribed her ailment to the eating of fwine's fiefh, blood, and other polluting food: and faid,, that fuch an ugly? or accurfed ficknefs, overcame the power of all his beloved fongs, and phyfic ; and in anger, he left his fuppofed criminal patient to be punimed by Loak Imtohoollo. I afked her fome time after wards, what her ailments were, and what me imagined might have occa- fioned them? She faid, me was full of pain, that (he had Abeeka Ookproo, " the accurfed ficknefs," becaufe fhe had eaten a great many fowls after the manner of the white people, with the Jffijh Ockproo, " accurfed blood," in- them. In time fhe recovered, and now ftrictly abftains from tame fowls,, unlefs they are bled to death, for fear of incurring future evil, by the like pollution.

There is not the lead trace among their ancient traditions, of their de- ferving the hateful name of cannibals, as our credulous writers have care fully copied from each other. Their tafte is fo oppofite to that of the An- throphagi, that they always over-drefs their meat whether roafted or boiled.

The Mufkoghe who have been at war, timeout of mind, againft the Indians- of Cape-Florida, and at length reduced them to thirty men, who removed to the Havannah along with the Spaniards ; affirm, they could never be in formed by their captives, of the leaft inclination they ever had of eat ing human fielh, only the heart of the enemy which they all- do, fytn- pathetically (blood for blood) in order to infpire them with courage ; and yet the conftant lofTes they fuffered, might have highly provoked them to exceed their natural barbarity. To eat the heart of an enemy will in their opinion^ like eating other things, before mentioned, communicate and give greater heart againft the enemy. They alfo think that the vigorous fa culties of the mind are derived from the brain, on which account, I have feen fome of their heroes drink out of a human fkullj they imagine, they only imbibe the good qualities it formerly contained.

When fpeaking to the Archimagus concerning the Hottentots, thofe he terogeneous animals according to the Portuguefe and Dutch accounts, he afked me, whether they builded and planted^ and what fort of food they

chiefly

�� �