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resurrection which led the Peruvians to preserve the bodies 
with so much care even to the embalming of them. 
End of the World.—The Peruvians believed that the end 
of the world would come after a frightful famine ; that the 
sun would be obscured, and the moon fall into our planet, 
and that everything would be enveloped in thick darkness.* 
The Senels of California also believed in the final consumption 
of the world by fire. 
Conclusions.—Thus some of the facts in regard to the re- 
ligious belief of the aborigines of America have been enume- 
rated. I will not stop to prove that they are held by the 
great majority of the rest of the world, both Christian and 
heathen. It remains to draw some conclusions from them. 
(1) They must be vital. The Bible, indeed, gives them to 
us, stating their truth, and that, as far as they have reference 
to us practically, they are for our good. But some men, 
whose opinion is entitled to respect, deny this. Yet, outside 
of the Bible, there comes this testimony from the people who 
have inhabited a country the farthest removed from the birth- 
place of the Bible and the longest isolated, saying that they 
believe in and practise these principles. Notwithstanding 
the fact of this wide separation, and also that they have sur- 
rounded their beliefs with so many savage customs, yet inside 
of this rubbish the principles still hve. ‘This shows how well 
they are adapted to the wants of mankind. Thousands of 
miles, thousands of years, the utmost ignorance and most 
savage practices cannot kill them, when once planted in the 
hearts of mankind. Or, if we believe that these ideas are 
innate, we must certainly believe that they are planted in 
man’s heart by the Creator, and for his good. 
(2) But they especially bring a strong argument to prove 
the unity of the race. 
It is not claimed that a belief in these ideas is universal in 
America. Some of them are more common than others,—as 
the belief in a Supreme Being, and lesser divinities, the 1m- 
mortality or future existence of the soul, the creation, and a 
future state of happiness. ‘The evidence is strong that others 
are not so widespread,—as a belief in a devil, a place of future 
punishment, sacrifices, and the Deluge. 
These ideas must probably have been originated in one 
of three ways: development, tradition, or have been born 
in man. 
* Tschudi’s Peruvian Antiquities, p. 152. 
+ Contributions to N. A. Ethnology, vol. iii. 
