( 15° ) 



Moll of their feftivals fongs and dances alfo 

 appeared to me to have their origin in religion, 

 and to preferve feveral traces of it ; but one mud 

 be very fharp- lighted, or rather one mud have a 

 very ftrong imagination to perceive what certain 

 travellers pretend to have difcovered in them. 1 

 have known fome perfons, who not being able to 

 get it out of their heads, that our Indians are 

 defcended from the ancient Hebrews, find in every- 

 thing a ftrong refemblance between thefe barba- 

 rians and the people of God. It is true there are 

 fome cuftoms which have fome appearance of this, 

 fuch as not to make ufe of knives in certain re- 

 pafts, and not to break the bones of the beafts 

 eaten in them ; and fucb alfo is the feparation of 

 the women from their hufbands, during certain 

 infirmities of the fex. And fome have even heard, 

 or at lead have thought they heard them pro- 

 nounce the word Allelujah in fome of their fongs i 

 but who would ever believe their boring their ears 

 and noftrils, to be in obedience to the Jaw of cir- 

 cumcifion ? And befides who does not know that 

 the rite of circumcifion, is more ancient than the 

 law which ordained the obfervation of it to Abra- 

 ham and his pofterity ? The feaft which is made 

 on their return from hunting, and in which no- 

 thing muft be left, has likewife been taken for a 

 kind of Holocauft, or for a relique of the Jewifh 

 paffover, and the rather, fay they, becaufe when 

 any perfon was not able to get the better of his 

 own portion, he was at liberty to make ufe of the 

 affiftance of his neighbours, as was the practice 

 amongft the people of God, when one family 

 were not able to eat the whole Pafchal lamb. 



An ancient midionary, who lived long amongft 

 the Outaways, writes, that amongft thefe Indians 



an 



