when they caft lots, and it fell to king Domalder to be the people's victim and he was accordingly put to death. Olaus Tretelger, another prince was burnt alive to Woden. They did not fpare their own children. Harald the fon of Gunild, the first of that name, flew two of his children to obtain a ftorm of wind. "He did not let," fays Verftegan, "to facrifice two of his fons unto "his idols, to the end he might "obtain of them fuch a tempeft at fea, as fhould break and dif"perfe the shipping of Harald king "of Denmark." Saxo Grammaticus mentions a like fact. He calls the king Haquin; and fpeaks of the perfons put to death, as two very hopeful young princes: Duos præftantiffime indolis filios, boftiarum more, aris admotos, potiunda victo riæ caufâ, neferia litatione maltavit. Another king flew nine fons, in order to prolong his own life; in hopes, I fuppofe, that, what they were abridged of, would in great measure be added to himfelf. Such inftances however occur not often: but the common victims were without end, Adam Bremenfis, fpeaking of the awful grove at Upfal, where thefe horrid rites were celebrated, fays, that there was not a fingle tree, but what was reverenced, as if it were gifted with fome portion of divinity; And all this because they were ftained with gore, and foul with human putrefaction. Lucas tam facre eft gentilibus, ut fingule arbores ejus ex morte vel tabo immolatorum divine videantur. The fame is obferved by Scheiffer in his account of this place. Deorum facre ille lucus erat: in arboribus fingulis Dii ipfi habitare credebantur : ergo ad tarum ramos corpora illa, veluti

munera quæ dam Diis gratissima, fuf. pendebant.

The manner in which the vic. tims were flaughtered, was diverfe in different places. Some of the Gaulish nations chined them with aftroke of an ax. The Celta placed the man, who was to be offered for a facrifice, upon a block, or an altar, with his breaft upwards; and with a fword Itruck him forci. bly acrofe the fternum: then tumbling him to the ground, from his agonies and convulfions, as well as from the effufion of blood, they formed a judgment of future events. The Cimbri ripped open the bowels; and from them they pretended to divine. In Norway they beat men's brains out with an ox-yoke. The fame operation was performed in Iceland, by dashing them against an altar of ftone. In many places they tranfixed them with arrows. After they were dead, they fufpended them upon the trees, and left them to putrify. One of the writers, above quoted, mentions, that in his time, feventy carcafes of this fort were found in a wood of the Suevi. Dithmar of Merfburgh, an author of nearly the fame age, fpeaks of a place called Ledur in Zeeland, where there were every year ninety and nine perfons facrificed to the god Swantowite. During those bloody fefti. vals a general joy prevailed; and banquets were moft royally served. They fed; they caroufed; and gave a foofe to indulgence, which at other times was not permitted. Dum facrificia hæc peragebantur, varii adhibiti funt ritus, et litationis modi: convivia celebrata magnifica: pars fanguinis poftibus illita: pars adftantibus propinata. They imagined, that there was fomething

my.

myfterious in the number nine for which reafon these feafts were in fome places celebrated every ninth year; in others every ninth month; and continued for nine days. When all was ended, they washed the image of the diety in a pool; on account I fuppofe, of its being stained with blood; and then difmiffed the affembly. Their servants were numerous, who at tended during the term of their feafting, 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 must neceffarilyinfufe into those who were not admitted to thefe myfteries; Arcanus hincterror, facra ignorantia, qui fit illud, quod tantùm perituri videbant.

Thefe 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 moft 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 settled. It confitted in the adoration of several deities, put particularly of Kronus; whom they offered human facri, fices; 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 a check being re ceived in Sicily, and fome other alarming circumftances happening, Himilcar without any hefitation 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 themfelves voluntarily, and were put to death with the others. The neglect, of which they accufed themselves 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 custom of old. In short there were particular children brought up for the altar, as Meep 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 most 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 reft. The Carthaginians chose 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 thefe facrifices were exhibited, was an oriental deity, the god of light and fire; and therefore always worshipped with fome reference to that element. The Carthaginians, as I

2

have obferved, first introduced him into Africa. He was the fame as the Oras of the Egyptians, and the Alorus of the eastern nations, That the name given him origi. nally 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 Kronas. Εν δε τη νυν Σαλαμίνα, πρότερον Κορωνίδι ονομαζόμενη, μηνί κατα Kompres, Apodiction, EdUETO Τροπος Αγραυλο, τη Κέκροπος και spons Arpounds. 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 dord Oras," or. He was univerfally adored in Cyprus; but particularly in this part, which Porphyry fuppofes to have been Salamis. This is evi dent from Diodorus Siculus, who mentions a city Ouranie here. He makes it indeed distinct from Salamis; but places it hard by, between that city and Carpafia; where the river Chor the Ou Our of the Phenicians, and the Courium, Kepion, 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' Ευφρήτας, Λιους κεκλιμένος

Αμμών. Απις έφυς Νείλος, ΑΡΑ ΚΡΟΝΟΣ, Ασσυρίοις Ζευς,

backwardness, or conftraint: but the whole be a free-will-offering. Blanditiis, et ofculo comprimente va. gitum, ne flebilis beftia immoletur. Thefe cruel endearments 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 inventions."

Thefe cruel rites, practifed in fo many nations, made Plutarch debate with himfelf, "whether it would not have been better for the Galatæ, or for the Scythians, to have had no tradition or conception of any fuperior beings, than to have formed to themfelves 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. Thefe people used, knowingly and wilfully, to go through this bloody work, and flaughter their own off. fpring. Even they, who were childlefs, would not be exempted from this curfed tribute; but pur. chafed children at a price of the poorer fort, and put them to death with as little remorse as one would kill a lamb, or a chicken. The mother, who facrificed her child, ftood by without any feeming fenfe of what the 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.

All the time of this celebrity, while the children were murdering, there was a noife of clarions and tabors founding before the idol; that the cries and fhrieks of the victims might not be heard. Tell me now," fays Plutarch, "if the monfters of old, the Typhons, and the giants, were to expel the gods, and to rule the world in their ftead? could they require a fervice more horrid, than thefe infernal rites and facrifices?"

Of