SUN OR FIRE WORSHIP. 743 



other travellers. Mr. George Catlin also states, 

 that the Mandans of the Upper Missouri, " offered 

 sacrifices, prayers, 'and thanksgivings, to the 

 Great Spirit who lives in the sun"* that they had 

 a tradition concerning the transgression of the 

 first woman, the general deluge, the miraculous 

 conception, birth, subsequent miracles, and death 

 of a Saviour. (Manners, Customs, &c. of the N. 

 Amer. Indians, vol. i. p. 180; vol. ii. p. 135.) 



We are further informed by Lord Kings- 

 borough, that the native language of Mexico, 

 (like the Saxon and Celtic of Europe,) is full of 

 Hebrew words, that the people had a tradition 

 of the flood, performed the rites of circumcision, 

 baptism, and auricular confession, sacrificed their 

 first born, like the ancient Phoenicians, Syrians, 

 and other oriental nations, including the early 

 Jews ; and that they expected a Messiah. (Anti- 

 quities of Mexico, vol. vi.) 



It is also stated by Higgins, on the authority 



* There is reason to believe, that the pyramids of Egypt, the 

 turrets of China, the cromlechs of the Druids, the round towers 

 of Ireland, and the mounds of America, were originally intended 

 as monuments of the same primitive worship practised in groves 

 and high places by the Canaanites, and all the ancient nations 

 of the earth. For it is stated by Parkhurst, on the authority of 

 several distinguished authors, that obelisks were originally dedi- 

 cated to the sun. And Volney says, that the Egyptians repre- 

 sented the sun by a cone, fire by pyramids, and the earth by a 

 revolving cylinder. Nor is the opinion that the pyramids were 

 consecrated to the worship of fire inconsistent with the general 

 belief, that the kings of Egypt were buried in their vaults. 



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