Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/229

 *Ihe teft monies of different 'writers. 2 1 7

new born infants, in refemblance of the Mofaic law ; as Ezek. xvi. 9. And the Spaniards fay, that the priefts of Mexico, were anointed from head to foot ; that they conftantly wore their hair, till they were fuperannuated ; and that the hufband did not lie with his wife, for two years after fhe was delivered. Onr northern Indians imitate the firft cuftom ; though in the fe- cond, they refemble that of the heathen by polling or trimming their hair; and with regard to the third, they always deep apart from their wives, for the greater part of a year, after delivery.

By the Spanifh authorities, the Peruvians and Mexicans were Polyga>- mifts, but they had one principal wife, to whom they were married with certain folemnities, and murder, adultery, theft, and inceft, were punifhed with death. But there was an exception in fome places, with regard to in- ceftuous intcrcourfes : which is intirely confonant to the ufage of the nor thern Indians. For as to inceft, the Cheerake marry both mother and daughter, or two filters -, but they all obferve the prohibited laws of confanguinity, in the ftricteft manner. They tell us, that when the priefts offered facrifice, they abftained from women and ftrong drink, and fafted feveral days, before any great feftival ; that all of them buried their dead in their houfes, or in high places ; that when they were forced to bury- in any of the Spanifh church-yards, they frequently ftole the corpfe, and interred it either in one of their own houfes, or in the mountains ; and that Juan de la Torre took five hundred thoufand Pezoes out of one tomb. Here is a long train of Ifraelitiih cuftoms : and, if we include the whole, they exhibit a very ftrong analogy between all the eflential traditions, rites y cuftoms, &c. of the South and North American Indians ; though the Spa niards mix an innumerable heap of abfurd chimeras, and romantic dreams, with the plain material truths I have extracted.

I lately perufed the firft volume of the Hiftorjrof North-America, from the difcovery thereof by Sylvanus Americanus, printed in New Jerfey, Anno 1761, from, I believe, the Philadelphia monthly paper and was not a little furprifed to find in fuch a ufeful collection, the conjectural, though perhaps well-intended accounts of the firft adventurers, and feeders, in North-America, concerning the natives : and which are laid as the only bafis for inquifitive writers to trace their origin, inftead of later and more fubftantial obfervations. Though feveral of thofe early writers were un-

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