THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



flicted on thos-i prisoners who are doomed to 

 death, are too shocking and horrible to be ex 

 hibited in detail : one plucks out the nails of the 

 prisoner by the roots; another takes a finger in- 

 10 his mouth, and tears off the flesh with his 

 teeth; a third thrusts the finger, mangled as it 

 is, into the bowl of a pipe made red hot, which 

 he smokes like tobacco: they then pound his 

 toes and fingers to pieces between two stones ; 

 they apply red hot irons to every part of his 

 mangled body; they pull off his flesh, thus man 

 gled and roasted, and devour it with greediness ; 

 and thus they continue for several hours, and 

 sometimes for a whole day, till they penetrate to 

 the vital parts, and completely exhaust the 

 springs of life. Even the women, forgetting the 

 human, as well as the female nature, and trans 

 formed into something worse than furies, fre 

 quently outdo the men in this scene of horror; 

 while the principal persons of the country sit round 

 the stake to which the prisoner is fixed, smoking, 

 arid looking on without the least emotion. What 

 is most remarkable, the prisoner himself endea 

 vours to brave his torments with a stoical apathy. 

 &quot; I do not fear death, (he exclaims in the face of 

 his tormentors,) nor any kind of tortures; those 

 that fear them are cowards, they are less than 

 women. May my enemies be confounded with 

 despair and rage ! Oh, that I could devour 

 them, arid drink their blood to the last drop!&quot; 



Such is a faint picture of the ferocious disposi 

 tion of the Indians of America, which, with a few 

 slight modifications, will apply to almost tl. 

 whole of the original natives of that vast conti 

 nent. Instead of the exercise of benevolent affec 

 tions, and ot forgiving dispositions; instead of 

 humane feelings, and compassion for the suffer 

 ings offellovv-mortals, we here behold them trans 

 ported into an extravagance of joy, over the 

 sufferings they had produced, the carnage they 

 had created, the children whom they had depriv 

 ed of their parents, and the widows whose hus 

 bands they had mangled and slain ; because they 

 had glutted their revenge, and obtained a victory. 

 Nothing can appear more directly opposed to the 

 precepts of Christ, and to the benevolence of 

 heaven. 



If, from America, we cross the Atlantic, and 

 land on the shores of AFRICA, we shall find tho 

 existing innabitants of that continent display 

 ing dispositions no less cruel and ferocious. 

 Bosrnan relates the following instances of cruel 

 lies practised by the Adomese Negroes, inhabit 

 ing the banks of the Praa or Chamah river. 



&quot; Anqua, the king, having in an engagement 

 taken five of his principal Antese enemies pri 

 soners, he wounded them all over ; after which, 

 w.ih a more than brutal fury, he satiated, though 

 not tired himself, by sucking their blood at the 

 gaping wounds ; but, bearing a more than ordi 

 nary grudge against one of them, he caused him 

 to be laid bound at his feet, and his body to he 



pierced with hot irons, gathering his blood tha- 

 issued from him in a vessel, one half of which he 

 drank, and offered up the rest to his god. On 

 another occasion, he put to death one of his 

 wives and a slave, drinking their blood also, as 

 was his usual practice with his enemies.&quot;* 

 Dispositions and practices no less abominable, 

 are regularly exhibited in the kingdom of Dnho- 

 my, near the Gulf of Guinea. An immolation 

 of human victims, for the purpose of watering the 

 graves of the king s ancestors, and of supplying 

 them with servants of various descriptions in the 

 other world, takes place every year, at a grand 

 festival which is held generally in April and May, 

 about the period, possibly, when the Bible and 

 Missionary Societies of this country are holding 

 their anniversaries. The victims are generally 

 prisoners of war, reserved for the purpose; hut. 

 should there be lack of these, the number (between 

 sixty and seventy) is made up from the most con 

 venient of his own subjects. The immolation ol 

 victims is not confined to this particular period ; 

 for at any time, should it be necessary to send an 

 account to his forefathers of any remarkable 

 event, the king despatches a courier to the shades, 

 by delivering a message to whoever may happen 

 to be near him, and then ordering his head to be 

 chopped off immediately. It is considered an 

 honour where his majesty personally condescends 

 to become the executioner in these cases ; an 

 office in which the king prides himself in being 

 expert. Tf&quot;? governor was present on one occa 

 sion, when a poor fellow, whose fear of death out 

 weighing he sense of the honour conferred upon 

 him, on I jing desired to carry some message to 

 his fat he , humbly declared on his knees, that he 

 was unacquainted with the way. On which tho 

 tyrant vociferated, &quot; I ll show you the way,&quot; and, 

 with one blow, made his head fly many yards 

 from his body, highly indignant that there should 

 have been the least expression of reluctance, f 

 On the thatched roofs of the guard-houses which 

 surround the palace of this tyrant, are ranged, 

 on wooden stakes, numbers of human skulls ; the 

 top of the wall which encloses an area before it, 

 is stuck full of human jaw-bones, and the path 

 leading to the door is paved with the skulls. 



In the kingdom of ASHANTEE, similar prac 

 tices uniformly prevail. &quot; When the king of this 

 country (says Dupuis) was about to open the 

 campaign in Gaman, he collected together his 

 priests, to invoke the royal Fetische, and perform 

 the necessary orgies to ensure success. These 

 ministers of superstition sacrificed thirty-two 

 male, and eighteen female victims as an expia 

 tory offering to the gods ; but the answers from 

 the priests being deemed by the council as stil! 

 devoid of inspiration, the king was induced to 

 make a custom, at the sepulchres of his ances 

 tors, where many hundreds bled. This, it is a 



* Dupuis Journal in Ashantee: 

 M Leod s voyage to Afri ta. 



