his claim, is to make his court to, and ingratiate bimself as much as possible in the interest and favour of the ladies before-mentioned.

We have already observed, that a considerable number of the king's wives are their own voluntary executioners the moment he expires. Their is also, we are assured, a numerous retinue of their grandees selected to attend him, under pretence that he has occasion for their service in the other world; and the successor for the generality, make a shrewd choice of such as he has just apprehensions would be factious and disaffected to his government. Formerly the king himself, they say, was not exempt from that barbarous and inhuman law, whereby it was enacted, that all such as were afflicted with any incurable distempers, should hasten their death by violent means. In that case their kings themselves submitted to their fate, as soon as they had nominated and appointed a person whom they best approved of to succeed them. Any conspicuous deformity, crosses, misfortunes, adversity, or in short, the loss of two of their fore-teeth, obliged them to the like voluntary submission. A king, say they, should have no natural imperfections. If it is his misfortune, had not he much better quit the world with disdain, and fly to another, where he will be for ever free from all infirmities?

In process of time, however, their monarchs grew more in love with life, and protested against such false principles, how heroic soever they might seem to be at first view. One of them perferring the certain enjoyment of this life before the hopes of absolute perfection in the next, caused a proclamation to be issued out, that though he had the misfortune to lose one his teeth, he was determined to live for the good of his subjects, and wait with patience for the day of his dissolution. Several particular days are instituted and appointed by this prince for the royal diversion of hunting, on which alone the lion is allowed to be rum down; which presumption is at all other times looked upon as a capital offence, because the Quiteve is dignified and distinguished by the honourable appellation of the Grand Lion.

These people never engage in any affair of importance, till they have first consulted whether they s all meet with success, by lot, with a kind of dice, or by some mystic lines or characters traced out upon the ground. Notwithstanding sorcery is prohibited on pain of death, or at least on the confiscation of their wives, children, and liberty itself, yet they have a strong propensity that way. Adultery and theft are subject to the same penalties as the practice of magic..

When the king has any negociations to transact with his neighbours, he nominates and appoints four ambassadors for that particular service. The first only represents his sacred person, and must be treated with the same dignity and respect as his majesty himself; the second is called the King's Mouth, and it is his peculiar province to declare the purport of his commission; the third is the King's Eye, whose business is to inspect, and pry into all that passes; the fourth and last is the King's Ear. He is obliged to listen with the utmost attention to all that is said on one side and on the other, and to make an impartial report thereof to his royal

master.

In this account of these people, are so many instances of the dreadful depravity of human nature, that we are frequently lost in amazement, and were they not attested by the most respectable authority, we could not give any credit to them, but to doubt of them after such evidence, would be an equal instance of madness, as if we were to assert that the Roman catholic religion is not professed in Italy. Unworthy notions of the Divine Being, imaginations of his corporeal existence, lead to barbarity in practice; for whenever we consider God as holy, pure, just, merciful, and good; when we consider him as infinite, eternal and unchangeable, we are led to consider what sort of service is due to him, what he expects from us the most acceptable, and which will civilize our manners here, while it prepares us for everlasting happiness. But what can be said of those poor creatures who know no better, who are left to their own wild imaginations, and even think worse of the objects of their worship than they possibly can of themselves. As we are commanded to pray for all mankind, so we should never forget these benighted creatures in our addresses to the throne of grace. God approves of his creatures wishing for the happiness of each other, and when in that instance we discharge our duty, we are to rest satisfied, leaving the event to divine wisdom.

stretch; for if he rests, it is looked upon as an impropitious omen, and the wedding must be deferred till another opportunity. Sometimes the match is entirely broke off without any further ceremony on the like unhappy disaster.

As to their funeral solemnities, they, as well as all those of whom we have been before speaking, furnish their dead with a variety of provisions, and they erect two stones, one at the head and the other at the foot of the grave, and rub them with sandal. They are mightily addicted to dreams; and altho' the credulity of those ignorant people is for the generality imposed upon, yet they cannot be persuaded by any means to deviate from this their favourite superstition; but there is no occasion to travel as far as Sofola to find out people of the same stamp and disposition.

Some particular Cafres, who reside in these parts, convey their dead into a cavern, which abounds with a vast number of crocodiles, in order that the souls of the deceased may enter into these animals, and purify themselves by that means. They have such a peculiar veneration for these crocodiles, that they leave proper provisions for them at the mouth of their dens, which are looked upon as holy ground. We have reduced this article into as small a compass as possibly we could to avoid tautologies, and num❤ berless absurdities, which a long detail thereof would inevitably lead us into. It is no difficult task to make a collection of the numerous contradictions which are to be met with in the accounts of travellers on this topic; but it requires a world of judgment to distinguish what is true from what is false.

sent over

Indeed, these people are not numerous, and in most of their religious ceremonies, they differ but little from the Hottentots, and some other African nations, whose religions we have already given an account of. The English gentlemen, who were by his present majesty a few years ago, to collect plants near the Cape of Good Hope, were informed by the Dutch clergymen, who attended them during an eight day's excursion they made up the country, that these people were amongst the most barbarous of all the Hottentots, and so unsocial, that they had little or no connections with the rest of the nations around them; but an old Hottentot, who had embraced the Christian religion, assured them, that they buried alive all those aged persons who were unable to procure themselves a subsistence. This may serve to shew, that they are destitute of bowels of compassion; and what is still more, they imagine that such ba barous actions are acceptable to the idols, or rather the devils. whom

No. 21.

they worship. This indeed has less or more been the effect of idolatry in all ages and nations, which is a striking evidence that politeness, humanity, henevolence, and all other social virtues can only be found where the human mind is enlarged with true knowledge, and adorned with real piety. Every thing else leads to barbarity, and even adds to the deformity of that nature which is already so much corrupted.

The Religion of the People who live on the Coasts of Quilimanca, Loranga, Quizungo, and as far as Cuma, towards the borders of Sofola. THOSE who reside near the first river, are some part of the ancient Troglodytes. Some of these people have no idols; and if they have, there are several of them, we are informed, that worship but one God, and acknowledge his Divine Providence, his goodness, and the immortality of the soul, and they believe, also, the existence of evil spirits. But all this notwithstanding, does not prevent them from blaspheming the deity, if their affairs run counter, and give them the least provocation. They observe some particular festivals and days of abstinence with extraordinary strictness; but the next day they always make themselves amends by excessive drinking. They debauch themselves with the heady liquor of maize, and a kind of sweet wine, made from their own country fruit. Mombaza is inhabited by Mahometans and idolators, and there is so trivial a difference between the religion of these people, and the others before mentioned, that it is not worth our observation. The king is, as it were, a kind of visible god, who assumes to himself an absolute power here on earth, and they carry fire before him when he takes the field.

The people of Melinda testify an unexampled veneration and respect for their sovereign, and they carry him on their shoulders, and prostrate theinselves before his litter, without presuming so far as to look him in the face. Several officers, plent... fully provided with the most exquisite perfumes, march before him; and for fear he should recct with any disaster upon the road, the moment he sets out from his royal palace, they cut open a young hind, the intrails whereof their idolatrous picss very curiously examine, in order to find the goca or ill success of this expedition. The people rend the air with loud acclamations of joy, and their most beaut ful women present themselves before his Moorish majesty, some singing his culogiums, and 6 K

others

His

others offering up, or burning their perfumes before him. When they are upon any important debate, they always take care to cut open a hind, and make the curious inspection before mentioned. majesty is obliged to walk three times successively over the hind, and the priest after such incision, practice several magical experiments, in order to ascertain the success. These people are, for the generality, addicted to the practice of magic, which principally consisting in some certain charms, and being accompanied with a dance which is very tiresome and fatiguing, affects at least one of the company then present, who, in this situation, discovers the secret they want to have revealed.

They indulge themselves in a plurality of wives, and on the wedding-day, two or three female neighbours, or relations of the bridegroom, march out at the head of a numerous train, and betimes in the morning, attend at the door of the bride's habitation, and there dance and sing, till the whole company, men and women, have made the usual marriage presents, which principally consist in maize and flour. Before the testimonies of their respect are paid, the female dancers are presented with a handful of maize, and have their left eye and cheek dusted over with flour. The day concludes with joy and rejoicing, and in the evening, the bridegroom conducts his partner to his own house, which closes the ceremony. The young maidens, on the borders of Quizungo, when they are on the point of marriage, depart from their habitations, and repair into some barren field, there to bemoan themselves for the space of an hour on the prospect of resigning their virgin honours. This ceremony is observed in the day time before a great number of friends and relations, who come to visit them on this occasion. At night they return home, and as soon as ever the new moon appears, the marriage feast begins, and the next morning the damsel is delivered to her lover, who takes her to his warm embraces without any further ceremony.

Their mourning is accompanied with long lamentations, and with weeping and wailing as loud as ever they can stretch their throats. They cover their dead, or rather wrap them up in black swaddling cloths. They bury them with their fire arms, their equipage, and all other proper accommodations for their journey. The mat on which the person deceased lay, the chair or stool on which he sat, and the utensils or implements of furniture which he made use of in his life-time, nay, his very habitation, are all burnt immediately after his interament. The loss, however, as is presumed, does not

amount to any considerable value; for these people are not ambitious of erecting any pompous and magnificent fabrics. The same customs are observed by the major part of the inhabitants of this coast, and it is a fundamental article with them, that the living must not touch the dead, nor any thing belonging to them, for such action would be an immediate pollution; and this unfortunate person must not re-enter his house, nor have any intercourse or familiar converse with his countrymen, till he has first washed and purified himself. The ashes of every thing burnt about the dead are collected together, and thrown into their graves with them, and their mourning continues two hours a day for eight days together. However, about midnight, one of the company sets the tune to their lamentations, and the whole assembly strike up immediately in the same melancholy key. In the morning they visit the grave, in order to supply the deceased with proper provisions. Those who undertake this friendly office dust their left eye and cheek with flour, in the same manner as at their nuptial ceremonies. They mutter some certain words over the graves of their dead; but whether they pray to them for success in their harvest, or requests to have them in remembrance, we are at a loss to determine, for they never wash their faces till the time of their mourning is expired.

On the coast of Melinda, and the parts anjacent, the young men, nay, the boys of seven or eight years of age, wear about six or seven pound weight of clay round their heads, till they have given some visible proof of their valour in war, or in single combat, and they are obliged to produce some tokens of their victory, and some effects of their neighbours. They are under the same indispensible obligation, as the natives of Mono Motapa, to produce some undeniable testimony of their conquest and courage. Such a certificate must be had; and, doubtless, such peremptory injunction, and the scandal those lie under, who are indolent and inactive, and neglect the duty incumbent on them, are irresistible motives to the frequent practice of bold and heroic actions.

We shall conclude with this cursory observation, that there are a set of notorious, despicable fellows, between Angola, and Mono Motapa, who are addicted to Sodomítical practices, and are a scandal to their sex; by gratifying the inordinate lusts and passions of their brutal companiors. These effeminate debauchees, in all probability, are species of the Floridan Hermaphrodites.

The

The Religion of the Ethiopians and the Gauls.

Notwithstanding they live under a Christian government, there are numberless idolators in this extensive empire. They are vagabonds and barbarians, says Ludolphus, who profess no religion, are under no legal restrictions, nor subservient to any king. They are, in short, a kind of Troglodytes, and their language is very confused, rough, and unpolished. These barbarous people are reckoned amongst the number of the Cafres; but besides these, there are the Agawas, who inhabit the highlands of Goiam, the Gonguas, the Gafates, the Gauls, who, in all probability, are the Guaguas, or Jagǝs, whom we have already described, and several others too tedious to enumerare. We shall begin with the Gauls.

They have no idols, no outward form of divine worship; at least, no customs, wherein there are any visible prints, or footsteps of religion. They make no distinctions between the heavens, and the Supreme being, the creator and preserver of all things. Though it is he, as they say, who comprizes all things within his own infinite immensity, yet they pay him no manner of adoration. However, they are, we are informed, very tractable, and might with ease be made proselytes to the Christian faith. The natives of Zender worship idols, or devils, and are extremely addicted to the practice and study of the black art; as to the others, we have nothing to offer concerning them that is worth the reader's attention.

The Gauls observe the ceremony of circumcision, and indulge themselves in a plurality of wives. Their young men are not permitted to cut off their hair, until they have signalized their courage in some warlike expedition, in the death of an enemy, or in the chace, by hunting down and killing some savage monster. It is not the heads of their enemies that they produce as testimonials of their valour, but some other very remarkable member, which the reader will readily discover, when he is informed, that they must give ocular demonstration of the slain person's sex. These honourable and distinguishing marks of their prowess are hung up as trophies, at the head of their camp. Once in eight years they elect a new general, or commander, who is obliged to notify his accession to the government, by an irruption on some of the Ethiopian territories

The natives of Zender hunt all around their woods; in order to find out a king, or ruler over them, amongst the savage beasts, who by the prevailing influence of his incantations allures them to him, as

Orpheus did of old, by the melody of his music. None but the grandees, or nobility of the kingdom, have any right or title to elect a prince, after the death of his predecessor. In order to find out his haunts in the forest, they take a bird of the eagle kind for their guide, who by his cries discovers the mighty hero, that is to be their sovereign; and there have been people much more polished and refined, who have relied on as precarious guides for the just object of their choice. Darius, king of Persia, the first of that name, had the good fortune to be elected king, for no other reason, but that his horse neighed before any of those belonging to his rivals, and competitors for the crown, who had unanimously agreed after the death of Smerdis the impostor, that he, whose horse neighed first, should be elected king without further ceremony. But to return to the king of Zender.

That innate modesty, or rather that established rule amongst these savages, which induces him to conceal himself, obliges him to oppose those who are ambitious of electing him; and he carries the ceremony so far, as to fight with and wound them, if possibly he can. For which reason, the electors are obliged to treat him roughly, to provoke and torment him, in order bring him to compliance, and accept of the crown; but he must not suffer himself to receive the least wound from any of his importunate electors: for in that case, he is looked upon as altogether unworthy of that high dignity; nay, his subjects, we are informed, are permitted to murder him, in case he happens to be wounded in this affected opposition and resistance. But be that as it will, even after he has submitted to his electors. he is once more subject to the insults of those who meet him on the road, and who endeavour by force to mount him on their shoulders, ambitious of the honour of conducting him to his throne. This regal seat, we may easily imagine, in none of the most pompous and magnificent; nor is his palace any thing more than a thatched house, or at best, than a common tent or pavilion.

of the Christian religion, though it is true, indeed, they seem to pay an extraordinary veneration to the cross, and deposit it on their altars.

They worship the moon, as the parent and cause of all things; and when they have been afflicted with a long series of dry weather, they make their earnest applications to her for a supply of water, in the following extraordinary manner. They make choice of one of the assembly, whom they enclose and shut up, as it were, in a kind of circumvallation, from whence he must not presume to stir, on pain of death. This devotee thus confined, is obliged to make his humblest addresses to the moon for ten days together, to implore the blessing of her refreshing showers. If it be matter of fact, that they cut of the hands of such devotee, in case, at the expiration of the term before mentioned, the moon should reject his prayers, and withhold her rain, we may with ease conceive, that the zeal of this devotee is as warm and conspicuous, as that of any other professors whomsoever, who, on the like emergent occasions, implore the assistance and mediation of the celestial beings, with the most surprising austerities, and under the galling yoke of the most barbarous and inhuman discipline: But we are not sufficiently apprised of all the circumstances that attend this extravagant and cruel ceremony, to be able to discourse upon it, without being liable to mistakes.

At some particular seasons, and before some remarkable fasts, the observance whereof is very strictly enjoined, the elders, or principals of the island, assemble themselves together, and offer up an hundred bucks, or goats, as a public sacrifice; and this is a kind of hecatomb. To these superstitious rites they add several Christian ceremonies; such as the celebration of Christmas, which they keep holy threescore days successively, by the observance of a kind of fast or religious abstinence from milk, butter, fish, and flesh. In short, they are so rigid and severe, that should any one unfortunately be discovered to neglect and break this ordinance, the penalty for the first offence, would be the loss of two fingers from his right hand, for the second, his hand itself; and for the third his arm.

They have a number of Moquamos, a term they distinguish their temples by; and these Moquamos are very small and low. They have three little doors, and in order to enter any of them, a person must be obliged to stoop almost to the ground. In each of these chapels stands an altar; on which are deposited a cross, and several sticks formed like flower-de-luces, which have something of the resemblance likewise of the cross. Every chapel has its

peculiar head, principal, or priest, called Hodamo, who is annually chosen, and the signatures or marks of his function are a staff and a cross, which he must not presume to give away on any pretence whatsoever, or suffer any person so much as to touch it, on pain of loosing one of his hands. The usual time set apart for Divine service in these chapels is, when the moon sets, or when she rises; and the visible marks, or external testimonies of their devotions are, for instance, the striking three times a day, and thrice every night, a stated number of blows on a long staff, with a shorter one; and afterwards the taking three tours all round the chapel, and turning themselves thrice round, at every tour. This ceremony is accompanied with an oblation of some odoriforous wood, put in an iron bason, that hangs by three chains over a large fire. After that, the altar is incensed three times, and the doors of the temple as many; and the devotees make the most solemn vows, and supplications to the moon, with exalted voices, not only within but all round the yard or sacred inclosure. They implore her protection, and beg that she would vouchsafe to confine her favours to them alone. During this part of their divine service, the Hodamo sets on the altar a lighted taper made of butter, the use of all other fat being prohibited; and they always take particular care to have a vessel in the chapel full of butter. But not for that purpose only; for they besmear their crosses, and staves, which they make use of in their religious ceremonies, with this favourite grease.

On some certain days of the year they make a solemn procession round the temple, at which public times they constitute one of their principals, or chief men in their country, to carry the most cumbrous sacred staff. After the procession is over, they cut his fingers off, and put a smaller staff into his hand, which by virtue of some mystic marks. serves him as a buckler and defence from all manner of insults; not to mention those singular honours which are paid him on account of his being possessed of such a sacred implement; and that odour of sanctity which the opportunity of carrying it in procession confers upon him. The reader no doubt. very clearly discerns, by the account we have here given, what a monisrous medley there is of Mahometanism, Christianism, and Faganism in this religion. They have also borrowed, as some authors pretend, several of their rites and ceremonies from the Nestorians.

After the relation of so extravagant a religion, the reader may well expect to hear of a variety of idle and ridiculous customs. They marry as many wives as their circumstances will permit them to main