The common sort of Indians, in these corrupt times, only sacrifice a small piece of unsalted fat meat, when they are rejoicing in the divine presence, singing _Yo Yo_, &c. for their success and safety: but, according to the religious custom of the Hebrews, who offered sacrifices of thanksgiving {118} for every notable favour that Elohim had conferred either on individuals, or the body,—both the war-leader and his religious assistant go into the woods as soon as they are purified, and there sacrifice the first deer they kill; yet, as hath been observed, they always celebrate the annual expiation of sins in their religious temples. The red Hebrews imagine their temples to have such a typical holiness, more than any other place, that if they offered up the annual sacrifice elsewhere, it would not atone for the people, but rather bring down the anger of _Ishtohoollo Aba_, and utterly spoil the power of their holy places and holy things. They who sacrifice in the woods, do it only on the particular occasions now mentioned; unless incited by a dream, which they esteem a monitory lesson of the Deity, according to a similar opinion of the Hebrews. To conclude this argument, it is well known, that the heathens offered the most abominable and impure sacrifices to a multiplicity of idol gods; some on favourite high places, others in thick groves, yea, offerings of their own children were made! and they likewise prostituted their young women in honour of their deities. The former is so atrocious in the eyes of the American Hebrews, that they reckon there needs no human law to prevent so unnatural a crime; the vilest reptiles being endued with an intense love to their young ones: and as to the latter, if even a great war-leader is known to cohabit with his own wife, while sanctifying himself according to their mode on any religious occasion, he is deemed unclean for the space of three days and nights; or should he during the annual atonement of sins, it is deemed so dangerous a pollution, as to demand a strict exclusion from the rest of the sanctified head-men and warriors, till the general atonement has been made at the temple, to appease the offended Deity: besides, as a shameful badge of his impiety, his clothes are stripped off. Thus different are the various modes and subjects of the heathenish worship and offerings, from those of the savage Americans. The surprizing purity the latter still observe in their religious ceremonies, under the circumstances of time and place, points strongly at their origin. {119} ARGUMENT X.