264 



NARRATIVE OF AN 



CHAP, only to prove the antiquity of the pra6lice *; for nothing 



XXVI 



is more notorious, than that the Eaftern Indians will rid 

 the houfes of the moft venomous fnakes by charming 

 them with the found of a flute, which calls them out of 

 their holes. And it is not many years fince an Italian 

 v/oman brought over three tame fnakes, which crawled 

 about her neck and arms : they were four or five feet 

 long, but not venomous. 



Another inftance of fuperftition amongft the negroes 

 I muft relate ; there is a dire6l prohibition in every 

 family, handed down from father to fon, againft the 

 eating of fome one kind of animal food, which they call 

 treff\ this may be either fowl, fifh, or quadruped, but 

 whatever it is, no negro will touch it ; though I have feen 

 fome good Catholics eat roaft-beef in Lent, and a reli- 

 gious Jew devouring a flice from a fat flitch of bacon. 



However ridiculo-us fome of the above rites may appear, 

 yet amongft the African blacks they are certainly necef- 

 fary, to keep the rabble in fubjeition ; and their gadomen 

 or priefts know this as well as the infallible Pontiff of 

 the Roman church. Thefe illiterate mortals differ, how- 

 ever, in this refpe<5l from the modern Europeans, that 

 whatever they believe, they do it firmly, and are never 

 daggered by the doubts of fcepticifm, nor troubled with 



* See the 58th Pfalm, ver. 4, and 5 : « ing never fo wifely." — Jerem, chap. 



*« They are like the deaf adder, that viii. ver. i7,--and the Book of Ecclc- 



« ftoppeth her ear j which will not heark- fiafteSj chap. x. ver, 1 1, &®. 

 ** en to the -voice oi charmers, charna- 



the 



