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such extreme ferocity in religious ceremonies 
should be found among a people, whose social 
and political state reminds us, in other points of 
view, of the civilization of the Chinese, and the 
inhabitants of Japan. The Aztecks were not 
satisfied.wifh dyeing their idols with blood, as is 
practised still by the Chaman Tartars, who how- 
ever sacrifice to their Nogats oxen and sheep 
only ; they even devoured a part of the carcase, 
which the priests threw down to the bottom of 
the staircase of the teocalli, after having torn 
out the heart. We cannot mention these objects 
without inquiring, whether these barbarous rites, 
which we find also in the islands of the South 
Sea, among nations whose mild manners have 
been too much vaunted, would have ceased of 
themselves, if the Mexicans, without having any 
communication with the Spaniards, had con- 
tinued to advance towards civilization. It is 
probable, that this beneficent reform in their 
worship, this triumph of the goddess of the har- 
vests over the gods of carnage, would have been 
very long delayed. 
In South America, the most powerful nation, 
the Peruvians, followed the worship of the Sun. 
The mbst bloody wars were waged by the Incas, 
' to introduce a peaceable and gentle religion; 
human sacrifices vanished, wherever the descend- , 
ants of Manco-Capac carried their laws, their 
