298 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
this abufe of eating living meat, or part of animals while yet 
alive, was known in the days of Noah, and forbidden after 
being fo known, and it is precifely what is practifed in Abyfii- 
nia to this day. This law, then, was prior to that of Mofes, but 
it came from the fame legiflator. It was’ given to Noah, 
and confequently obligatory upon the whole world. Mofes, 
however, infifts upon it throughout his whole law; which 
not only fhews that this abufe was common, but that it was 
deeply rooted in, and interwoven with, the manners of the 
Hebrews. He pofitively prohibits it four times in one 
chapter in Deuteronomy *, and thrice in one of the chapters 
of Leviticus }-—“ Thou fhalt not eat the blood, for the blood 
“ is the life; thou fhalt pour it upon the earth like water.” 
ALTHOUGH the many inftances of God’s tendernefs to the 
brute creation, that conftantly occur in the Mofaical precepts, 
and are a very beautiful part of them, and tho’ the barbari- 
ty of the cuftom itfelf might reafonably lead us to think that 
humanity alone was a fufficient motive for the prohibition 
of eating animals alive, yet nothing can be more certain, 
than that greater confequences were annexed to the indul- 
ging in this crime than what was apprehended from a 
mere depravity of manners. One { of the moft learned 
and fenfible men that ever wrote upon the facred fcrip- 
tures obferves, that God, in forbidding this practice, ufes 
more fevere certification, and more threatening language, 
than againft any other fin, excepting idolatry, with which 
it is conftantly joined. God declares, “I will fet my face 
“againtt him that eateth blood, in the fame manner as I 
“ will againft him that facrificeth his fon to Moloch ;. I will 
7 * det: 
* Deut. chap. xii. +. Levit. chap. xvit, $ Maimon. more. Nebochim, 
