28 On Popular Illuftons. 



they would have returned to their anchorage, if the • 

 admiral, Timotheus, had not fuddenly exclaimed, 

 do you wonder that of fo many thoufands, one man 

 fhould be troubled with a defluxion* ? 



It is a ftriking circumftance in the charafter of 

 Pompey, that while he was difputing the empire 

 of the world with his great rival, he collefted aufpices 

 from all quarters t, confiding in their truth. It 

 appears that the augurs knew how to make their 

 prediftions agreeable, for Cicero fays that every 

 thing happened contrary to them ; omnia fere con^ 

 tra ac di5la evenijfe (d). 



We may indulge our cuiiofity in remarking, how 

 nearly the moft poliflied nations of antiquity, in thefe 

 fuperftitions, approach the Indian tribes of North 

 America. All the marches of the Indians are re- 

 gulated by the dreams of the old warriors, who, 

 under this pretence, often convey information gained 

 by fpies to the young men : but it mud be obferved 

 ■that they only pay attention to dreamers of efta- 

 bliflied charader. They have their regular diviners, 

 or conjurers alfo, who are at the fame time phy- 

 ficians. When a difeafe proves mortal, the dodor 

 is frequendy in danger from the refentment of the 

 patient's friends : from this rifl^, the progrefs of re- 

 ■finement has happily exempted the phyficians of 

 Europe. In every Indian village, the war -woman 

 alfo is a kind of oracle j by dreams and prefages, 



* Frontin. Strat. lib. II. t Cic de Divin, lib. II. 



fhe 



