H 



U 



M 



A 



N 



S 



P 



E 



C 



I 



E 



S. 



535 



their bodies, which fees, hears, fmells, taftes, and feels, which they religion. 

 call E-teehee -, and they believe, that after the diffolution of the 

 body, it hovers about the corpfe; and laftly, retires into the 

 wooden reprefentations of human bodies, eredled near their burying 



places. 



They are convinced of the certainty of a happy life in the 



fun, where they fhall feaft on breadfruit, and meat which requires 



. no dreffing y and they think it their duty to dired: their prayers to 

 this Supreme Divinity, or Eat ob a- rah at. 



Thofe who have more; 



leifure among thefe people, are very defirous of learning what is; 



F 



known relative to this and all other inferior divinities, and to prac- 

 tife fuch virtues, as by the general confent of mankind conftitute 



1 



good adions j thefe are briefly the general outlines of their religion. 



and. worfhip. 



Though thefe principles are generally adopted among the greater 



part of mankind, provided they are not fo much degraded and de- 



bafed as to have loft even thefe univerfally acknowledged notions of 



there 



however 



the Deity, and of the duties we owe him -, 



impropriety in believing that thefe very notions are the venerable 



r 



remains of a tradition, which may have been brought over from the 

 Afiatic continent. We do not, however, mean to iniinuate, as if 

 their notions of the Deity and his worfhip were of fuch a com- 

 plexion that they could not have been learnt but by tradition ; there 



* ¥ 



are, h9wever., many reafons which confirm me in 



this 



op 



mion t' 



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^ 



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