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Show , I I H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. - DISSERT. fl:ars, to foretel from thence the fortunes of men. Both of.them were VIII. '--"v--J equally fearful of eclipfes and comets, as they fufpettcd them the forerunners of great calamities. This fupedl:ition has been common to all the people of the world. They were alfo all afi·aid of the voice of the owl, or any other fuch bird. Thefe and other fuch fupedl:itions have bee11 general, and are fiill common to the vulgar of the old and new c~ntinents, even in the center of mofi cultivated Europe. But all which we know of thofe American nations in this matter, is not to be compared with that which we are told of the ancient Romans by ti-u:ir poets a~d hifto~·ians. The works of Livy, Pliny, Virgil. Suetomus, Valenus Maxmltls, and other judicious authors, which cannot be 1·cad without fmiling, {hew us to what excefs the childilh fuperfiition of the Romans arrived. No animal among the quadrupeds reptiles and birds wa-s not employed to forctel future events. · If a bird _flew towards the _left hand, if the raven croaked, if they heard the voiCe of the cro_w,. 1f a moufe tafi:ed honey, if a hare paffed acrofs · the road, all thofe mc1dcnts were prognofiics of fome great calamity. Formerly there was a luftration made of all Rome for no other reafon than ~e:aufe an owl entered the Capitol ( p ). Not only animals, but alfo. tnvul and contemptible circumftances were fufficient to excite fu ... perftitious dread i as the fpilling of wine or falt, or the falling of fome meat fro~1 table. Who woul? not have been amazed to conte 1,plate ~he arufp1ces perfons of fuch h1gh refpeCl ferioufly occupied in ex::uninmg th~ movements of the vietims, the; fiate of their in trails, and colour of the1r)>lood, to pro.gno11icate from thofe figns the principal events of that famous repubhc? " I wonder," faid the 2'reat Cicero " that '' an.~ru f1p ex do es not fim.l e ~~en he views anothe9r of his own, profef-fion. Wha.t ca~1 be more ndiculous than that kind of augury whicll was called trtpudtum? Who would have imagined that a nation in fome ref~etts f~ enligrtened, a?d alfo fo ';arlike, fl1ould carry along with the1r armtes~ as the moil: tmportant thing to the fuccefs of their arms, a cage of ch1ckens, and dare not to begin the battle without confulting them? If the chickens did not tafte the food which was put before {: ( P? B11~0 fu~ebr1s et m~xime abominatus publicis p.recipuc nufpiciis ••. Cnpitolii cellilm ip· ~ mtravlt,Pl' exH•. ~apelho ~firo L. Pedanis Cofi: Jll'Ol)tcr <1uod nonis Mart.iis urbs lufirata c eo anno, 1n, ln. Nat. hb. x. cup. u. them 7 H. I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I <; o~'· !fbem it 'Yas a bad omen; if, befi~es n~t eating it, they efcaped out of the c~ge, it was worfe ; if, on the contrary, thev\ eat greedily, tl;le augury was moll: happy; fo that the moil: effeCl:~a\ m~ns to fccure v.ietory would have been to keep the chickens without food, until tpey were ·Confulted. To fuch e.xceffes is the fpirit of man led, when refigned to the cap. ricious diCtat~s of paffion, or fiimulated by fears arifing from a fenfe · of h~s own weaknefs. But Americans, Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians . were all fuper-ftitious and puerile in the praetice of their religiq,n ; not fo however, in the . obfcenity of their rites, becaufe we find not the l~aft ·traces in the rites 9f ~he Mexicans, of thofe abominable cufl:oms wh1ch were fo common among the Romans and other nations of 'antiquity. What could be more indecent than the Eleufinian feafrs which the Greeks made, or thofe which the Romans cdebrated in honour of Ve~ nus, in ~he calends of Apr.il, and above all others thofe very obfceue games which they exhibited in honour of Cybele, Flora, Bacchus, and other fuch falfe deities? What rite could be more obfcene than that which was obferved on the !tatue of Priapus. among the nuptial ccrePlOnies ? How could they celebrate the feftivals of fuch ince~uous and adu1terous gods but with .fuch obfcene pra~ices ? ~-low was 1t poffib~e they !hould have been a!hame:l of thofe v1ces which they faw .Gmc-tioned by their own divinities ? • . . It is true that although nothing obfcenc nungled with the ntes of the Mexicat~s, fome of them were fuch, as on the fuppofition of the Divinity of their gods would have been very indecent, na~1e~y that of anointing the lips of the idols with the blood of the Vletuns : but would it not have been more indecent to have given them blows, as ~he Romans gave the goddefs Matuta at the Matra/ feafl:s '?. Confid~r~ng the error of both, the Mexicans were certainly more rational by gn,Jtlg their crods a liquor to tafte which they imagined was acceptable to them, ~h_an ~he 11om~llS by efecqting an acl:ion upo_n their goddef.~ which has been e11:eemed highly inlulting among all nat1ons of the world. Wh~t we have faid hitheJto, though fufl1cient to fhew that the religi~ n ·of the Mexicans ~a~ leis exceptionable than that of .the Romans, ' V. ot. II . . L l 1 Greek ~ I 44.1 DISSERT. VIII. ~ I ' |