INDIAN AND OTHER 



sepulchre was profaned through a principle of religion ; and 

 the malquis*, elevated to the rank of gods, received in the 

 plains the sacrifices of the living. 



All their errors having been covered by the veil of piety, 

 they were insensible to this strange alienation of the mind, 

 and were persuaded of the assistance of a particular deity, in 

 the rocks, in the elevated grounds, in the vallies, in the 

 streams, springs, and rivers, and in all the places inhabited 

 by men or wild beasts ; insomuch, that they did not proceed 

 a step without invoking the names of the divinities their ima- 

 gination had created, and tendering to them an offering. By 

 these ridiculous and degrading superstitions they were fasci- 

 nated ; and as religion has a powerful influence on the cus- 

 toms, their spirit, occupied by ideas of so chimerical a na- 

 ture, unnecessarily invented rites, and multiplied presages. 

 When, for the first time, they cut off the hair of their male 

 offspring, they were at infinite pains to celebrate the adt. 

 Imagining it to be the dawn of their felicity, they assembled 

 their relatives and friends, and solemnized the festival with 

 every demonstration of joy, presenting to the shorn youths, 

 gold, silver, and other gifts. The same pra6lice was fol- 

 lowed by the -mothers, when their daughters attained the age 

 of puberty. With an eager desire for their welfare, they 

 strove, by certain charms and incantations, to provide for 

 their future felicity. 



The sick hastened to bathe in the pools and rivers, prac- 

 tising an ififinite number of extravagant ceremonies, and dis- 



* Dead bodies. 



charging 



