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old unto tenne; and the greatest parte of thefe facrifices were for the affaires that did concern the Ynca, as in fickness, for his recovery; and, when he went to the warres, for victory. In thefe folemnities they facrificed the number of two hundred children of the age defcribed above, which was a cruell and inhumane fpectacle. The manner of the facrifice was to drowne them and bury them with certaine reprefentations and ceremonies; and fometimes they cut off their heads, anointing themfelves with the blood. They did likewife facrifice virgins; and, if a native were ficke, and the ecclefiaftic tolde him confidently that he should die, they did then facrifice bis own fonne to the SUNNE, or to VIRACHOCA, defiring them to be fatisfied with him, and spare the life of the father."" In the following page of the fame author we read as follows: "Although they of Peru have surpassed the Mexicans in the flaughter and facrifice of their children, yet they of Mexico have exceeded them, yea and all the nations of the worlde, in the great number of men which they facrificed, and in the horrible manner thereof.

The men, thus facrificed,

* Acofta's Hiftorie of the Indies, p. 380. Edit. quart.

Lond. 1604.

facrificed, were taken in the warres, neither did they use thefe folemne facrifices, but of captives, in this they followed the custom of the ancients." Acofta might here have added, in particular that of the Scythians, and the Druids, their direct defcendants; as I have little doubt of very shortly demonftra. ting. "In truth, the ordinary warres they carried on were only made to obtain captives for their facrifices; and, therefore, when they did fight, they laboured to take their enemies alive for the purpose of enjoying their facrifices."* The facrifice was per formed upon a raised terrace, which cannot fail of bringing to the reader's recollection the high quadrangular altar of the Scythian favages, and the ceremony itself is thus defcribed: "The fovereign priest carried a great knife in his hand of a large and sharpe flint : another priest carried a collar of wood, wrought in form of a fnake:" he might have faid the ferpent, the fymbol of that fun, whose devoted victims they were. "The other four priefts, who aflifted, arranged themselves in order, adjoining to the pyramidal ftone, whereof I have spoken; being directly against the doore of the chapell of their idoll. This ftone

Acofta's Hift. of the Indies, p. 382.

ftone was fo pointed, as that the man who was to be facrificed, being laid thereon upon his back, did bend in fuch fort, as occafioned the ftomach to feparate upon the flightest incifion of the knife. When the facrificers were thus in order, they brought forth fuch as had been taken in warre, and caused them to mount up thofe large ftairs, in rank, to the place where the minifters were prepared. As they respectively approached thofe minifters, the latter feized them, two of them laying hold of the two feet and two more of the two hands of the unhappy victim, and in this manner caft him on his back upon the pointed ftone, while the fifth fastened round his neck the ferpentine collar of wood. The high priest then opened his ftomach with a knife with wonderful dexterity and nimblenefs, tearing out his heart with his hand, which he elevated smoking towards the funne, to whom he did offer it, and presently, turning towards the idol, did caft the heart towards it, besmearing his face with the blood. In this manner were all the victims facrificed, and the bodies afterwards precipitated down the stairs, reeking with their gore. There were ever forty or fifty victims, at the least, thus facrificed." The above paffage I have given

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given unabridged, because in it are enumerated certain particulars, as the wooden ferpent, the pyramidal stone, and the offering to the Sun the heart of the victim, which exhibit ftill lefs equivocal marks of the fimilarity prevailing in the theology of the two continents: nor can I, for the fame reafon, prevail upon myself to omit his relation of their very remarkable veneration for fountains and rivers, and their frequent ablution in them. "Anciently there were Indians appointed to perform facrifice to fountains, fprings, and rivers, whose waters paffe through the towns. To this day, they are honoured with a confiderable share of the ancient refpect paid to them: but a more especial regard and reverence is paid to the meeting of two rivers; and there they perform ablutions, anointing themfelves first with the flower of mays, adding thereto divers ceremonies, as they do likewife in their bathes."* That portion, however, of the theological system of the Americans, to which I wish to direct the more particular attention of the reader, is contained in the following paffage, where this reverend father, in pious indignation, acquaints us, that "the devil, after his manner, hath brought a Tri

* Acosta's Hift. of the Indies, p. 379.

nity

nity into their idolatry; for, the three images of the Sun, called APOмTI, CHURUNTI, and INTIQUAOQUI, aré terms that fignify FATHER and LORD SUN, the SON SUN, and the BROTHER SUN. In like manner they named the THREE IMAGES of CHUQUILLA, which is the god that rules in the region of the air." But, according to this writer, they go a step farther than the acknowledgement of a mere Triad of Deity, and worship a direct Trinity in Unity for," in Cuquifaco there is a certaine oratory, where they worship a great idol, whom they call TANGATANGA, which fignifies ONE IN THREE and THREE IN ONE."* Of these three Triads, the first very much refembles the Triplafios Mithras, or threefold power of God in the Sun, adored by the Perfians; and the second is parallel to the Jupiter Pater, Jupiter Soter, and Jupiter Ultor, of the Greeks; or, if the reader chooses rather to understand it phyfically, in respect to the ætherial element, this American Eendra may be the Jupiter Tonans, Jupiter Serenus, and Jupiter Pluvius, all which names are refpectively conferred upon him by ancient writers; but the third is an evident perverfion of the dogma of a purer theology handed traditionally

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Acosta's Hift. of the Indies, p. 412,

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