( ) 



cing this ufage, which they looked upon as a 

 very innocent way of knowing what paffed at a 

 diftance. 



I have never heard it faid whether fuch private 

 perfons, as were inclined to pcfTefs fuch fecrets, 

 were under any necefiity of palling any trial at their 

 initiation ; but profefled jugglers are never in- 

 verted with this character, by which they enter in- 

 to a kind of compact with the genii, and which 

 renders their perfons venerable, till alter theyjiave 

 prepared themfelves by fallings, which they carry 

 to a great length, during which they are inceflant- 

 ly beating the drum, fhouting, howling, finging 

 and fmoaking. The inftallaticn is afterwards made 

 in a kind of Bacchanalian fe Rival with ceremonies 

 fo very extravagant and accompanied with fuch 

 tranf ports of fury, that one would imagine the de- 

 vil took poffeffion of their bodily organs, from that 

 moment. 



/ 



They are, notwithstanding, the minifters of thofe 

 pretended gods, only in as much as they make 

 known to men their will, and ferve them as inter- 

 preters ; for if we might give the appellation of 

 facrifices, to the offerings which thefe nations pay 

 to their divinities, their priefts are always different 

 from their jugglers : tftefe in all publick cere- 

 monies are the chiefs, and in domeftick occurren- 

 ces, it is generally the father of the family, or in 

 his abfence the mod confiderable perfon in the cab- 

 bin, who performs this function. But the chief 

 occupation of the jugglers, at lean: that by which 

 they get mod profit is phyfick : they exercife 

 this art by principles, founded on the know* 



ledge 



