Ribault Laudon describing the yearly festival of the Floridans, says, that the day before it began, the women sweeped out a great circuit of ground, where it was observed with solemnity;—that when the main body of the people entered the holy ground, they all placed themselves in good order, stood up painted, and decked in their best apparel, when three _Iawas_, or priests, with different paintings and gestures followed them, playing on musical instruments, and singing with a solemn voice—the others answering them: that when they made three circles in this manner, the men ran off to the woods, and the women staid weeping behind, cutting their arms with muscle-shells, and throwing the blood towards the sun; and that when the men returned, the three days feast was finished. This is another confused Spanish draught of the Floridan passover, or feast of love; and of their universal method of bleeding themselves after much exercise, which according to the Spanish plan, they offered up to the sun. From these different writers, it is plain that where the Indians have not been corrupted by foreigners, their customs and religious worship are nearly alike; and also that every different tribe, or nation of Indians, uses such-like divine proper name, and awful sounds, as _Yah-Wah_, _Hetovah_, &c. being transpositions of the divine essential name, as our northern Indians often repeat in their religious dances. As the sound of _Yah-wah_ jarred in Laudon’s ear, he called it _Java_, in resemblance to the Syriac and Greek method of expressing the tetra-grammaton, from which Galatinus imposed it upon us, calling it _Jehowah_, instead of _Yohewah_. {208} The Spanish writers tell us, that the Mexicans had a feast, and month, which they called _Hueitozolti_, when the maiz was ripe; every man at that time bringing an handful to be offered at the temple, with a kind of drink, called _Utuli_, made out of the same grain.—But they soon deck up an idol with roses, garlands, and flowers, and describe them as offering to it sweet gums, &c. Then they speedily dress a woman with the apparel of either the god, or goddess, of salt, which must be to season the human sacrifices, as they depicture them according to their own dispositions. But they soon change the scene, and bring in the god of gain, in a rich temple dedicated to him, where the merchants apart sacrifice vast numbers of purchased captives. It often chagrines an inquisitive and impartial reader to trace the contradictions, and chimerical inventions, of those aspiring bigoted writers; who speak of what they did not understand, only by signs, and a few chance words. The discerning reader can easily perceive them from what hath been already said, and must know that this Spanish mountain in labour, is only the Indian first fruit-offering, according to the usage of our North-American Indians.