yfterious in the number nine: for which reafon thefe feafts were fome places celebrated every inth year; in others every ninth onth; and continued for nine ays. When all was ended, they athed the image of the diety in pool; on account I fuppofe, of is being ftained with blood; and then difmiffed the affembly. Their ervants were numerous, who at ended during the term of their afting, and partook of the banquet. At the clofe of all, they were fmothered in the fame pool, or otherwife made away with. On which Tacitus remarks, how great an awe this circumftance mult neceffarily infufe into thofe who were not admitted to thefe myfteries; Arcanus hincterror, facra ignorantia, qui fit illud, quod tantùm perituri videbant.

These accounts are handed down from a variety of authors in diffe. rent ages; many of whom were natives of the countries, which they defcribe; and to which they feem ftrongly attached. They would not therefore have brought fo foul an imputation on the part of the world, in favour of which they were each writing; nor could there be that concurrence of teftimony, were not the history in general true.

The like cuftom prevailed to a great degree at Mexico, and even under the mild government of the Peruvians; and in moft parts of America. In Africa it is ftill kept up; where, in the inland parts they facrifice fome of the captives taken in war to their Fetiches, in order to fecure their favour. Snelgrave was in the king of Dahoome's camp, after his inroad into the countries of Ardra and Windaw;

and fays, that he was a witness to the cruelty of this prince, whom he faw facrifice multitudes to the deity of his nation.

The facrifices, of which I have been treating, if we except fome few inftances, confifted of perfons doomed by the chance of war, or affigned by lot to be offered. But among the nations of Canaan, of whom I firft fpoke, the victims were peculiarly chofen. Their own children, and whatever was nearest and dearest to them, were deemed the most worthy offering to their god. The Carthaginians, who were a colony from Tyre, carried with them the religion of their mother country, and inftitu. ted the fame worship in the parts where they fettled. It confifted in the adoration of feveral deities, put particularly of Kronus; to whom they offered human facrifices; and efpecially the blood of children. If the parents were not at hand to make an immediate offer, the magiftrates did not fail to make choife of what was most fair and promifing; that the god might not be defrauded of his dues. Upon Upon a check being re.. ceived in Sicily, and fome other alarming circumftances happening, Himilcar. without any hesitation laid hold of a boy, and offered him on the fpot to Kronus; and at the fame time drowned a number of priests, to appeafe the deity of the fea. The Carthaginians another time, upon a great defeat of their army by Agathocles, imputed their mifcarriages to the anger of this god, whofe fervices had been neglected. Touched with this, and feeing the enemy at their gates, they feized at once two hundred children of the prime nobility,

and

and offered them in public for a facrifice. Three hundred more, being perfons who were fome how obnoxious, yielded themselves voluntarily, and were put to death with the others. The neglect, of which they accufed themfelves confifting of facrificing children purchased of parents among the poorer fort, who reared them for that purpofe; and not felecting the most promifing, and the moft honourable, as had been the cuftom of old. In fhort there were parti. cular children brought up for the altar, as theep are fattened for the fhambles; and they were bought, and butchered in the fame manner. But this indifcriminate way of proceeding was thought to have given offence. It is remarkable, that the Egyptians looked out for the moft fpecious and handfome perfon to be facrificed. The Albanians pitched upon the best man of the community, and made him pay for the wickedness of the relt. The Carthaginians chofe what they thought the most excellent, and at the fame time the most dear to them; which made the lot fall heavy upon their children. This is taken notice of by Silius Italicus in his fourth book:

Mos erat in populis, quos condidit advena Dido,

Pofcere cæde Deos veniam, et flagrantibus aris, Infandum dictu! parvos imponere

natos.

Kronus, to whom the fe facrifices were exhibited, was an oriental deity, the god of light and fire; and therefore always worshipped with fome reference to that ele." ment. The Carthaginians, as I

κατα

have obferved, first introduced him into Africa. He was the fame as the Orus of the Egyptians, and the Alorus of the eastern nations. That the name given him originally by the Greeks was Koronus. is manifeft from a place in Crete, which was facred to him, and is mentioned by the name Coronis. It is faid, that both the chief city, and the adjacent country, were thus denominated; and that thefe facrifices were there offered, which we know were peculiar to Kronus. Ed τη YUY Σαλαμινί, Κορωνίδι ονομαζόμενη, μηνί Kumpies, Appodioia, Αφροδισίω, έθνε το Τροπος Αγραυλο, τη Κέκροπος και νύμφης Αγραυλίδος. If this place which was confecrated to him (as is apparent by thefe offerings), was called Koronis; it is plain, that his name must have been rendered by the Greeks Koronus: and both are a tranfpofition for Koh-Orus, or Chon-Orus, "the lord Orus," or. He was univerfally adored in Cyprus; but particularly in this part, which Porphyry fuppofes to have been Salamis. This is evident from Diodorus Siculus, who mentions a city Ouranie here. He makes it indeed diftinct from Salamis; but places it hard by, between that city and Carpafia; where the river Chor (the Ouc Our of the Phenicians, and the Courium, Kepov, of the Greeks) runs at this day. The Greeks thought Kronus was the fame as Xpovos but it was an oriental name; and the etymology was to be looked for among people of thofe parts.

Βέλος επ' Ευφρήταο, Λιβυς κεκλεμένος Αμμων.

Αστις έφυς Νείλωος, ΑΡΑ ΚΡΟΝΟΣ, Ασσυρίοις Ζευς,

The Greeks, we find, called the deity, to whom thefe offerings were made, Agraulus; and feigned that he was a woman, and the daughter of Cecrops. But how came Cecrops to have any connection with Cyprus? Agraulus is a corruption and tranfpofition of the original name, which fhould have been rendered Uk El Aur, or Uk El Auras but has, like many other oriental titles and names, been ftrangely fophifticated; and is here changed to Agraulus. It was in reality the god of light; the Orus and Alorus, of whom I have faid fo much, who was always worshipped with fire. This deity was the Moloch of the Tyrians and Canaanites, and the Melech of the eaft; that is, the great and principal god, the god of light, of whom fire was esteemed a fymbol; and at whofe fhrine, inftead of viler victims, they offered the blood of men.

Such was the Kronus of the Greeks, and the Moloch of the Phenicians and nothing can appear more fhocking, than the facrifices of the Tyrians and Carthaginians, which they performed to this idol. In all emergencies of ftate, and times of general calamity, they devoted what was moft neceffary and valuable to them, for an offering to the gods, and particularly to Moloch. But befides thefe undetermined times of bloodshed, they had particular and preferibed feafons every year, when children were chofen out of the most noble and reputable families, as I have before mentioned, If a perfon had an only child, it was the more liable to be put to death, as being efteemed more acceptable to the deity, and more

efficacious of the general good. Thofe who were facrificed to Kronus, were thrown into the arms of a molten idol, which ftcod in the midst of a large fire, and was red with heat. The arms of it were ftretched out, with the hands turned upwards, as it were to receive them; yet floping downwards, fo that they dropt from thence into a glowing furnace below. To other gods they were otherwife flaughtered; and, as it is implied, by the very hands of their parents. What can be more horrid to the imagination, than to fuppofe a father leading the dearest of all his fons to fuch an infernal fhrine? or a mother, the moft engaging and affectionate of her daughters, juft rifing to maturity, to be flaughtered at the altar of Afhteroth or Baal? Juftin defcribes this unnatural custom very pathetically. Quippe homines, ut victimas immolabant; et impuberes (que tas hoftium mifericordiam provocat) aris admovebant: pacem fanguine eorum expofcentes, pro corum vitâ Di rogari maxime folent. Such was their blind zeal, that this was continually practifed; and fo much of natural affection ftill left unextinguifhed, as to render the scene ten times more fhocking, from the tenderness which they feemed to exprefs. They embraced their children with great fondnefs; and encouraged them in the gentleft terms, that they might not be appalled at the fight of the hellich procefs: begging them to fubmit with cheerfulnefs to this fearful operation. If there was any appearance of a tear rifing, or a cry unawares efcaping; the mother fmothered it with her kiffes: that there might not be any fhow of

back

backwardness, or conftraint: but the whole be a free-will-offering. Blanditiis, et ofculo comprimente vagitum, ne flebilis hoftia immoletur. Thefe cruelendearments over, they ftabbed them to the heart, or otherwife opened the fluices of life; and with the blood warm, as it' ran, befmeared the altar, and the grim vifage of the idol. Thefe were the cuftoms which the If raelites learned of the people of Canaan; and for which they are upbraided by the Pfalmift. "They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the Lord commanded them: but were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. Yea, they facrificed their fons and their daughters unto devils, and fhed innocent blood, even the blood of their fons and of their daughters, whom they facrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventi

ons."

Thefe cruel rites, practifed in fo many nations, made Plutarch debate with himfelf, "whether it would not have been better for the Galate, or for the Scythians, to have had no tradition or conception of any fuperior beings, than to have formed to themselves notions of gods, who delighted in the blood of men; of gods, who efteemed human victims the most acceptable and perfect facrifice? "Would it not" fays he, " have been more eligible for the Carthaginians to have had the atheist Critias, or Diagoras, their lawgiver at the commencement of their policy, and to have been taught, that there was neither.

god nor dæmon, than to have facrificed, in the manner they were wont, to the god which they adored? Wherein they acted, not as the perfon did, whom Empidocles defcribes in fome poetry, where he expofes this unnatural cuftom. The fire there with many idle vows offers up unwillingly his fon for a facrifice; but the youth was fo changed in feature and figure, that his father did not know him. These people used, knowingly and wilfully, to go through this bloody work, and flaughter their own offfpring. Even they, who were childlefs, would not be exempted from this curfed tribute; but purchafed children at a price of the poorer fort, and put them to death with as little remorfe as one would kill a lamb, or a chicken. The mother, who facrificed her child, food by without any feeming fenfe of what he was lofing, and with out uttering a groan. If a figh did by chance efcape, the loft all the honour which the propofed to herfelf in the offering and the child was, notwithstanding, flain.

Have fhewn, that the diftinction made by Africanus, Eufebius, and others, between Chaldean and Arabian kings, is void of all foundation: and, were the lift, that they produce, genuine, it would determine the point againft them. All that can be esteemed true in the feries they produce, is the names of thofe who are foremost in the lift. And, how ever mistaken they may have been in thofe that follow; yet, fetting them afide, we may learn, in refpect to the Chaldeans, what was the opinion of thefe writers, and what tradition had thought them; that Ham, Chus, and Nimbrod were the heads of this nation. And as the Chaldeans were the moft ancient inhabitants of the country called by their name; there are no other principals, to whom we may refer their original. They seem to have been the moft early conftituted, and fettled, of any people upon earth: And from their fituation it appears, and from every other circumftance, that Chus was the head of their family, and Nimbrod their firft king.

They feem to have been the only people, that did not migrate at the general difperfion: and the centre of their province was at Ur, not far from the conflux of the Tigris and Euphrates. From hence they extended themfelves under the names of Cufeans and Arabians, as far as Egypt weft, and eastward to the Ganges; occupying to the fouth all the Afiatic fea-coaft, and the whole of the large continent of Arabia: And from thence they paffed the

I

Erythrean gulf, and penetrated into Ethiopia. They were continually incroaching upon thofe that were nearest to them; and even trefpaffed upon their own brotherhood. In procefs of time they got full poffeffion of Egypt, and the whole coaft of Africa upon the Mediterranean even_to the Atlantic ocean, as far as Fez and Taffilet: and are to be found within the tropics almost as lowas the Gold coaft. Upon the Gambia is the king of Barfally, of Arabian extraction, as are all the Phooley nations; who retain their original language, and are of the religion of Mahomet.

One of thefe, Job

Ben Solomon by name, was not many years fince in England. He had been unjustly feized on by a prince, his neighbour, and carried to America, where he was fold for a flave: but writing an affecting account of his misfortune in his native tongue, it raised the curiofity, as well as pity, of fome perfons of confequence in the fe parts; who redeemed him, and fent for him over; and having fhewn him fingular marks of favour, at his requeft difpatched him to his