26 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



circumstance, he sent the coin to the Pope — a fact tending to prove 

 that the Romans came over at that time to explore and colonize the 

 Indies. 



63. The great majority of the Indians kept, followed, and observed 

 the customs, rites, and ceremonies of the Hebrews ; accordingly in 

 all the provinces of those countries they had priests and diviners 

 consecrated to the worship of their false gods and to the service of 

 the temples, and these priests were conscientious observers of their 

 vain and false religion. In New Spain there was a High Priest and 

 various lesser priests, who were anointed with a certain liquid like 

 balsam or liquidambar, mixed with the blood of children whom they 

 circumcised. These false priests wore their hair long like the Naza- 

 renes, and in almost everything they copied the priests of the Old 

 Law ; just as they offered animals in sacrifice, so the Indians offered 

 them also ; and just as the Hebrews of the Ten Tribes sacrificed chil- 

 dren (as is clear from II Kings, chapter XVII, and many other pas- 

 sages of Holy Writ, which I omit citing in order to avoid prolixity), 

 so the Indians, descendants of the Ten Tribes, sacrificed them also. 

 Besides this, misled and instigated by the Devil, they offered cruel 

 human sacrifices, as is described in all the histories of the Indies, and 

 as is well known to us all who have traveled there. 



64. God commanded Abraham (as is affirmed in chapter XVII 

 of Genesis) that boys 8 days old should be circumcised ; the same 

 custom is followed by most of the Indians of New Spain, Yucatan, 

 Cozumel, and other regions, and the Guaicuriis of Paraguay: the 

 Moors also are circumcised, since that miscreant Mohammed took 

 over the custom from the Hebrews. Consequently the Indians must 

 have adopted it from the Hebrews, from whom they are sprung. 



65. God commanded Moses (Leviticus, chapter VI) that there 

 should always be a fire burning before the altar, without fail; the 

 same rite was observed by the Mexican Indians and other tribes in 

 New Spain, and by the Peruvian Indians in the temples of the Sun, 

 and other shrines (guacas). Other laws, rites, and ceremonies from 

 Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and the Decalogue, observed by the Hebrews, 

 were found among the Indians, which for brevity's sake I omit. 



Chapter XII 



How the Indians Resembled the Hebrews in Their Burial Usages, 

 and in Other Matters. 



66. The Hebrews were accustomed to have their burial places in 

 the fields and on the hillsides outside their towns, and buried their 



