; 



^ 



*. 



54^ 



R 



M ARKS 



O N 



THE 



<. 



REfciGiON. and offer up faciiEces, and to perform the rites which are deemed 



requifite on each occalion. 



m 

 -f 



I 



to the fon. 



This dignity is hereditary and defcends 

 Ekch chief of a province has likewife a prieil, and 

 the inferior ranks of people have in the fame manner pecuhar 

 priefts, who cannot perform rites and offer up prayers for men of 

 a higher clafs": it is obferved by Hawkefworth, vol. ii. p. 239, 



perform the fame office 

 lis, to which the other 



mal 



that even the priefls for the 



for the females j .and that. each. fex has mar 



fex is never, admitted, though they have marais common to both. 



I 



Thefe circumffances indeedVe never heard, but it is not improbable 



that they have, thefe fingularkies in their mode of worfliipping. 



The ads of 'devotion,- which thefe nations pay to their divinities 



likewife of various kinds 



th 



firil 



pray 



addreffed to one of their deities.- The prayers themfelves are either 

 ippken loud or- offered tacitly by the prieil: : for each peculiar 

 ceremony they have fhort fentences, , which they deliver on that 

 occalion; the language feems to be more formal, fententious, and 

 almoff totally different from that ufed in common life: for none 



« 



of us were able to underffand the leaff fentence of tli 



pra) 



jthough we were poffeffed. of 



a tolerable fhare of knowledge of their 



■ 



prayers which the 



large vocabularies, and had acquired 



guag 



Befides th 



priefts of each clafs del 



pon 



certain oc- 



cafxons;, the. laymen themfelves are not excluded from %'in 



ttei 



g 



