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^eld in fome countries. I even find that amongft 

 c he Hurons and Iroquois, there were not long fmce 

 reclufes, who obferved continence, and they mew 

 certain very falutary plants which have no virtue, 

 according to the Indians, except they are employed 

 by virgin hands. 



The beft eftablifhed opinion amongft our Ame- 

 ricans is, that of the immortality of the foul. 

 They do not however believe it to be purely fpiri- 

 tual more than their genii, and to tell truth, are in- 

 capable of giving any diftincl definition of either. 

 If you afk them what they think of their fouls, 

 they anfwer, that they are like fo many fhadows 

 and iiving images of the body, and it is by a con- 

 fequence of this principle, that they believe every 

 thing in the univerfe to be animated. Thus it is 

 only by tradition they have received this notion 

 of the immortality of the foul. And in the dif- 

 ferent expreflions they make ufe of, In explaining 

 themfelves on this fubjecl, they frequently confound 

 the foul with its faculties, and thefe again with 

 their operations, though they very well know how 

 to diftinguifh them, when they have a mind to 

 fpeak with accuracy. 



They maintain, likewife, that the foul when 

 feparated from the body, preferves the fame in- 

 clinations and paflions it had in its former ftate, 

 and this is the reafon why they bury along with the 

 dead, the things they imagine they may Hand in 

 need of. They are even perfuaded, that it re- 

 mains hovering about the carcafe until the feftival 

 of the dead, of which I mall give you an account 

 by and by ; and that afterwards it goes into the 

 country of fouls, where, according to fome, it is 

 transformed into a tortoife* 



There 



4 



