So Of the fascinating FACULTY 



tain knowledge, this reptile was once held in particular 

 efteem by the Delawares. He was feveral times pre- 

 vented, by thel'e Indians, from killing the rattle-fnake, 

 being told that it was their grand-father, and, therefore, 

 jnuft not he hurt. At other times, he was told, he mull: 

 not kill this Inake, becaufe the whole race of rattle-fnakes 

 would grow angry, and give orders to bite every Indian 

 that might come in their way *. But, of late, efpecially 

 among thofe Indians who have had connedlion with the 

 whites, thefe ridiculous notions have mouldered away, 

 and our Indians, at prefent, kill their rattling " grand- 

 father" with as little ceremony as the Kfkemaux are faid 

 to kill their parents in old-age. 



It is obvious, from contemplating the manners and 

 the hiftory of nations, that a part of their religions, and 

 a large part of the fabrick of their fuperftitious notions, 

 have arifen out of fear. Perhaps, all mankind -j- admit 

 the exiftence of two great beings, the one good and all- 

 benevolent, the other bad and ftudious of evil. In our 

 own continent, where, 1 believe, this notion was univer- 

 fal, certain tribes were affiduous in their adoration of the 

 latter being, whilft the former, whom the light of reafon 

 taught them to confider as the fource of life, and all their 



* \n my Hijlorical and Ph'ilofothical Inquiry (-not yet publiflied), I have 

 collected many facfts which feem inconteftably to prove, tliat the mythology, 

 or fuperftitious religion, of the Americans is a fragment of that mythology 

 whofe range in Alia, and in Africa, has been fo extenfive. Poffibly, the 

 veneration, or regard, which was paid to different kinds of ferpents in 

 America did not originate in this continent, but had its fource in Afia, 

 from which portion of the globe (after a long and laborious attention to 

 the fubjecT) I cannot doubt, that almoft all the nations of America are 

 derived. It is unnecelfary, in this place, to cite inftances of the relieious 

 veneration which was, and ftill is, paid to fome fpecies of ferpents, in various 

 parts of the old-world. Thefe inftances mud be familiar to every perfon, 

 who is acquainted with the hiftorians or with the poets of antiquity, and 

 with the hiftory of the Gentoo-Indians. 



t I fpeak of mankind in tlie aggregate, and not of individuals among 

 them. 



bleffings, 



