414 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i. 



u 



from the authorities of Herodotus and Cicero; the former re- 

 cording the existence of it among the Nasamones, a people 

 who inhabited the countries between Egypt and Carthage; and 

 the latter relating the same circumstance of the ancient Per- 

 sians. I am inclined to believe that this practice prevailed 

 also in the country and age of the patriarchs; for how other- 

 wise are we to understand the Scripture phrase OF GATHERING 

 UP THE FEET OF THE DYING? "And when Jacob had made 

 " an end of commanding his sons, HE GATHERED UP HIS 

 " TEET INTO THE BED, and yielded up the ghost. || 



Many other corresponding circumstances may be traced in 

 Herodotus. Thus when he enumerates the army of Xerxes, 

 lie observes of the ancient Ethiopeans, that they used bows 

 and arrows in battle, and painted their bodies with crimson.^ 

 The coincidence between these people and the Charaibes in 

 both these respects, can hardly, I think, be ascribed to chance, 

 and it is such as instinct could not have produced. 



Equally prevalent among the Charaibes, and many of the 

 ancient nations in the eastern part of the old hemisphere, were 

 the superstitious rites of shortening the hair and wounding the 

 body, in religious ceremonies and lamentations for the dead. 

 That these practices were usual among the heathens, so early 

 as the days of Moses, is evident from the injunction which the 

 Lord laid on the children of Israel to avoid them. " Yt shall 

 " not round the corners of your head, neither shall thouuiar 

 *' the corners of thy beard. Ye shall not make any cuttings 

 " in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon 

 " you."-\ Again, " Ye are the children of the Lord, your 

 "God: Ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness 



|| Gen. c. xlix. v. 33. 



* Book vii. 



f Levit. c. xix. v. ^^. 



