OF SERPi&NTS. 239 



when their Idols are angry with them ; therefore to appeafe them, 

 they pour at their Feet the Wi?ie of Pahns. They wa(h, paint, 

 and new cloath their Dead, and bury with them Meat, Drink, 

 and fome of their Goods, and fprinkle the Grave with the Blood 

 of Goats. Their Priefts are in fuch high Efteem, that they think 

 Plenty and Famine, Life and Death, are in their power *. 



The old Inhabitants of Virginia believed many Gods, \mK 

 one principally, who made the reft .... and that the Woman 

 was made before the Man, and propagated by the Help of one 

 of the inferior Gods. The Natives arc Anthropo?norphites, giving 



to their Gods the Forms of Men When they go abroad, 



they carry their Gods about with them, and in Matters of Doubt 

 afk Counfel of them. Much of their Devotion confifts in howl- — 

 ing and dancing about Fires, with Rattles in their Hands. 

 ^are. Whether this Cuftom be not the Original of Caftanets oi* 

 Snappers in Dancing -f- ? 



Another Inftance of monftrous Degeneracy, we have a- 

 mong the Phenicians, who offered yearly Sacrifices to Saturn of 

 young Infants 5 and in the Temple of Venus, prad:ifed not only 

 Whoredom, but the moft unnatural Sin of Sodomy alfo 5- yea^ 

 by the Laws of their Religion, were bound to proftitute their 

 Daughters to Venus, before they married them : In their Temple 

 the Women who refufed to be fliaved, were obliged to yield up 

 their Honour to Strangers for one day. 



I N the Country, now called New Spain, the old Inhabitants 

 would neither eat nor drink, till they had caft towards the Sun,, 

 fome part of their Food j nor would they fmell a Flower, with- 

 out throwing up in the Air fome Leaves of it, thereby acknow- 

 ledging the Gods to be their great Benefadors : Tho' this be ri- 

 diculous, yet having an Air of religious Gratitude, it is com^ 

 mendable. Among other Idols ador'd at Mexico, they had one 

 called Vitziliputzli, placed in an azure colour'd Chair, with Ser- 

 pent's Heads at each Corner. 



Yea the Pagans, to authorize their own Crimes, and juftify 

 their vicious Lives, have conftituted licentious, drunken, vicious 

 Gods, ^c, Inftances of this kind we have in their religious In- 

 ftitutions, as the Saturnalia of the Romans, which were Feafts 

 iacred to the God Saturn : This Feaft was obferved in Decemher^, 



at 



* ScePurctar. f Uackhit i^JPurchas- 



