Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/217

 *&e tejllmonies of Spani/h writers. 205

laboured- very Hard for the images, and ought to have fuitable applaufe for fo ufeful an invention -, as it (hews the univerfal opinion of mankind, con cerning idols and images. With regard to that long conjectural divine name, by which they expreffed the one true God, there is not the lead room to doubt, that the South-Americans had the divine name, Tohewah y in as great purity as thofe of the north, efpecially, as they were at the fountain head > adding to it occafionally fome other ftrong compound words..

He fays alfo, that the metropolis of Cbolola had as many temples as there were days in the year ; and that one of them was the mod famous in the world, the bafis of the fpire being as broad as a man could (hoot with a crofs bow, and the fpire itfelf three miles high. The temples which the holy man fpeaks of, feem to have been only the dwelling-houfes of ftran- gers, who incorporated with the natives, differing a little in their form of ftrudure, according to the ufual cuttom of our northern Indians : and his religious principles not allowing him to go near the reputed fhambles of the devil, much lefs to enter the fuppofed territories of hell, he has done pretty well by them, in allowing them golden funs and moons veftry keepers, &c. The badnefs of his optic inftruments, if joined with the fuppofed dimnefs of his fight, may plead in excufe for the fpiral. alti-r tude, which he fixes at 15,480 feet, for from what we know of the northern Indians, we ought to ftrike off the three firft figures of its height, and the remaining 40 is very likely to have been the juft height of the fpire, alias the red-painted, great, war-pole..

The fame writer tells us, that the Peruvian pontifical office belonged to the eldeft fon of the king, or fome chief lord of the country : and that it devolved by fuccefiion. But he anoints him after a very folemn manner, with an ointment which he carefully mixes with the blood of circumcifed infants. This prieft of war dealing fo much in blood himfelf, without doubt, fufpefted them of the like-, though at the fame time no Indian prieft will either (hed, or touch human blood: but that they formerly circumcifed, may with great probability be allowed to the holy man.

The temples of Peru were built on high grounds, or tops of hills, he fays, and were furrounded with four circular mounds of earth, the one rifing

gradually

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