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Messrs. Tyerman and Bennett, (k) have given a very interesting account of the sacrifice of three men and four hundred hogs, at Oahu, in order to appease the gods, and to mitigate the yellow fever.

"In the year 1804, when the late king, Tamehameha, was on his way from Hawaii, to invade Tanai, he halted with an army of eight thousand men, at Oahu. The yellow fever broke out among the troops, and in the course of a few days, swept away more than two thirds of them. During the plague, the king repaired to the great maræ at Wytiti, to conciliate the god whom he supposed to be angry. The priests recommended a ten days tabu, the sacrifice of three human victims, four hundred hogs, as many cocoa nuts, and an equal number of branches of plantains. Three men, who had been guilty of the enormous turpitude of eating cocoa nuts with the old queen, (the present king's mother,) were accordingly seized and led to the maræ. But there being yet three days before the offerings could be duly presented, the eyes of the victims were scooped out, the bones of their arms and legs were broken, and they were then deposited in a house, to await the coup de grace on the day of sacrifice. While these maimed and miserable creatures were in the height of their suffering, some persons, moved by curiosity, visited them in prison, and found them neither raving nor desponding, but sullenly singing the national huru, dull as the drone of a bagpipe, and hardly more variable, as though they were insensible of the past, and indifferent to the future. When the slaughtering time arrived, one of them was placed under the legs of the idol, and the other two were laid,

(k) Journal of Voyages and Travels, by the Rev. Daniel Tyerman and George Bennett, Esq.; 3 volumes.

with the hogs and fruit, upon the altar-frame. They were then beaten with clubs upon the shoulders, till they died of the blows. This was told us by an eye-witness of the murderous spectacle. And thus men kill one another, and think that they do God service."

Modern navigators have found this practice established on every newly discovered island throughout the vast Pacific ocean. In the interior of Africa, it is said, they still sacrifice captives to the gods to obtain their favor. Snelgrave was in the camp of king Dahome, after his conquest of Adra and Whidaw, and says he saw four hundred Whidaws, and a multitude of people of other nations, sacrificed to the gods. In India, it has also continued to the present time. The Indians throw men into the Ganges, who are devoured by sharks. Families desirous of posterity, vow to devote every fifth child to death for the gods; and European sailors have seen, of late years, parents push back into the waves, a young boy thus devoted, who was trying to save himself by swimming.

Such are a few references to the custom of sacrificing men, with the hope of obtaining thereby the favor of the gods; to which horrid custom men have been led by religious feelings, unguided by reason or revelation. Shall I add to this account, the innumerable company of martyrs of all religions and all sects; or the hosts who have perished in the wars of Religion? (1) Shall I add that 30,000 widows annually devote themselves to death in India, on the funeral piles of their husbands, to which course they are urged by their religious teach

(1) Father Paul (council of Trent,) computes that in the Netherlands alone, there were hanged or put to death, 50,000 men, from the time of the edict of Charles the 5th, against reformers.

ers? or that above 30,000 men were put to death in Spain, by order of the Inquisition? Shall I narrate the carnage of St. Bartholomew's day? or detail the fact that in one century, 100,000 human beings were put to death for witchcraft in Germany, 30,000 in England, and more in Scotland?

But enough. Though these and other similar sacrifices seem to be connected with the subject under discussion, we would willingly draw the veil over them. The details already given are sufficient to show that all religions and all sects have been improved by increased intelligence, and above all, by the introduction of Christianity; though when we see such men as the pious Baxter, and his associates, Calamy, and Mather, borne along by the tide of prejudice and credulity, and lending their aid through ignorance to crimes which now make us shudder, we are constrained to say that Christianity, though of Divine origin, and of itself sufficient for man's salvation, is ever retarded by ignorance and advanced by knowledge. All history shows, that its true spirit has ever been misunderstood or disregarded, where the human mind has been groping in the darkness of ignorance; that it has been comprehended, and its true excellence appreciated, only in enlightened communities; yea, more, that where it has not been thus properly understood, it has been converted into an engine for debasing and crushing the human mind, instead of elevating and improving it, as was assuredly the intent of its Divine author.

In conclusion, the detai's given in this sec on serve to convince us that the religious, is, of all the sentiments that have been given to man, the most powerful and indomitable, but that to be greatly beneficial to mankind, it needs the guidance of enlightened reason.

CHAPTER II.

RELIGIOUS RITES WHICH MUTILATE THE HUMAN BODY. CIRCUMCISION, EMASCULATION, FLAGELLATION, WOUNDING THE BODY BY CUTTING INSTRUMENTS, ANCHYLOSIS OF JOINTS BY RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES.

HAVING noticed, in the preceding chapter, the most deplorable of all the practices to which the religious sentiment has ever impelled mankind, I now proceed to consider some of those religious rites which injure and mutilate the human body without destroying it. It may be said that fasting and other austerities have the effect to change and injure the human form, and they do so; but the effects resulting from these causes will be noticed more fully under another head. In this chapter, I shall confine myself to the consideration of those religious rites which directly mutilate the human body.

Of Circumcision.

This very ancient and singular custom, which prevailed in ancient Egypt, and extensively throughout the hot climates of the east, consists in cutting off a small portion of the prepuce or foreskin of males. This was probably not at first a religious custom, but was resorted to for health and cleanliness. A very warm climate,

says M. Delpech, (m) produces great relaxation of this part, and sometimes gives rise to the batarde, a kind of gonorrhea, or ulceration of the foreskin, which circumcision prevents. Gibbon says "health, rather than superstition had first invented it, in the climate of Ethiopia," and he adds in a note, "the Ethiopians have a physical reason for the circumcision of males and even of females. It was practised in Ethiopia, according to Heroditus, long before the introduction of Judaism or Christianity." (n)

That it prevailed before the introduction of Judaism, I think is evident from the account given to Abraham, respecting it. No details were given to him as to the manner of performing the operation, or the instruments to be used, but it is referred to as a proceeding with which he was already acquainted. He was merely enjoined to do it as a sign of the covenant to be established with him, as we learn from the 17th chapter of Genesis.

"This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; every man-child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man-child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an ever

(m) "Dictionaire des Sciences Medicales," vol. v. art. Circoncision. (n) "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," chap. xlvii.

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