Page:The lives of celebrated travellers (Volume 1).djvu/43

 powers in steeping the senses of travellers in delusion, sometimes calling them by their names, practising upon their sight, or, by raising up phantom shapes, leading them astray, and overwhelming them in the sands. Upon other occasions, the ears of the traveller were delighted with the sounds of music which these active spirits, like Shakspeare's Ariel, scattered through the dusky air; or were saluted with that sweetest of all music, the voice of friends. Then, suddenly changing their mood, the beat of drums, the clash of arms, and a stream of footfalls, and of the tramp of hoofs, were heard, as if whole armies were marching past in the darkness. Such as were deluded by any of these arts, and separated, whether by night or day, from their caravan, generally lost themselves in the pathless wilds, and perished miserably of hunger. To prevent this danger, travellers kept close together, and suspended little bells about the necks of their beasts; and when any of their party unfortunately lagged behind, they carefully fixed up marks along their route, in order to enable them to follow.

Having safely traversed this mysterious desert, they arrived at the city of Shatcheu, on the Polonkir, in Tangut. Here the majority of the inhabitants were pagans and polytheists, and their various gods possessed numerous temples in different parts of the city. Marco, who was a diligent inquirer into the creed and religious customs of the nations he visited, discovered many singular traits of superstition at Shatcheu. When a son was born in a family, he was immediately consecrated to some one of their numerous gods; and a sheep, yeaned, perhaps, on the birthday of the child, was carefully kept and fed in the house during a whole year: at the expiration of which term both the child and the sheep were carried to the temple, and offered as a sacrifice to the god. The god, or, which was the same thing, the priests, accepted the sheep, which they could eat, in