FORMER CRUELTY TO THE SICK. 47 
ful to the afflicted, and afford such alleviation to 
their sufferings. The attention of the relatives and 
friends was directed to the gods, and their greatest 
efforts were made to appease their anger by offer¬ 
ings, and to remove the continuance of its effects 
by prayers and incantations. The simple medi¬ 
cine administered, was considered more as the 
vehicle or medium by which the god would act, 
than as possessing any power itself to arrest the 
progress of disease. 
If their prayers, offerings, and remedies were 
found unavailing, the gods were considered im¬ 
placable, and the diseased person was doomed to 
perish. Some heinous crime was supposed to have 
been committed. Whenever a chief of any dis¬ 
tinction was afflicted, some neglect or insult was 
supposed to have been Shewn to the gods or the 
priest, and the most costly offerings were made to 
avert the effects of their wrath, and secure the 
recovery of the chieftain. Human victims were 
sometimes sacrificed, ceremonies performed, and 
prayers offered. These were not made to the na¬ 
tional idol, but to the tutelar god of the family. 
They were all, at times, unavailing; and when 
they imagined, in consequence of the rank or 
ancestry of the chief, that the deity ought to have 
been propitious, but they found he was not, and 
the sufferer did not recover, with a singular 
promptitude, in powerful contrast with their ordi¬ 
nary conduct towards their gods, they execrated 
the idol, and banished him from the temple, choos¬ 
ing in his place some other deity that they hoped 
would be favourable. 
The interest manifested in the recovery of their 
chief would depend much upon his age. If ad¬ 
vanced in years, comparatively little concern would 
