548 



REMARKS 



N 



THE 



RELIGION 



tliem fome facriiices of the animals and fruit of their country, I 

 have frequently feen hogs, dogs, or fowls roafted, covered with a 



f 



built near the 



the 



fine piece of cloth, and expofed on a kind ( 



marai for that purpofe : I likewife. faw great fcafFolding 



neighbourhood of the marai, wholly covered with bananas, and 



F 



plantanes, as Sacrifices or offerings to their gods i.but I never faw 

 any thing elfe offered to their divinities,, nor did I ever hear that 



h 



ave in 



they facrifice men. However,, as Captain Cook feems to 

 v-eftigated the fubjed very carefully,. * it is not improbable f that 



* \ 



th€y think it expedient f o punilh. their criminals In this manner, 



devoting them as.facrifices to their God : nay,, as we have air 

 ready mentioned, f that in more remote times canibalifm 

 troduced among the Taheiteans, . and the inhabitants of the Society 

 IlleSj it is highly probable that thefe human facrifices, are the remains 

 of the canibalifm of thefe ifiandersi. with this difference, that they 



was 



\ 



now 



ik 



See, Cook's Voyage, vol...i.. p. iS^, 



\ 



I Almoft all the antient nations facrificed men ; tlie Egyptuns excepted; who never 

 were addiftcd to this cruel and barbarous cuftoin ; and.wlierever It is mentioned in old wntera 



s to 



that the Egyptians praftifed this method in order to nppeafe the anger of their gods, it i 

 be underftood of the Arabian fhepherds, who undoubtedly were ufed to reconcile their divi- 

 nities by human facrifices, and w^ho once had over-run and conquered all Egypt* On the* 

 fubjeft of averting the anger of the gods, >y the effafion of human blood, among all nations, 

 none has written with greater learning, than the ingenious Mr. Bryant, in his OlfcYvation% 



au^ Inciidries relating to n^arious Parts of a?icicnt Hijlcry^ p. 267 — 285. 



% Sec C4)ok's Voyage, p, 3^75 and likewife p. 358^ 359, and 360, 



