Benzo[99] says, that the men and women incline very much to dancing; and the women often by themselves, according to the manner of the Hebrew nation; as in 1 Sam. xxi. 11. especially after gaining a victory over the enemy, as in Judg. xi. 34.-xxi. 21, 23, and 1 Sam. xviii. 6, 7. Acosta tells us, that though adultery is deemed by them a capital crime, yet they at the same time set little value by virginity, and it seems to have been a bewailable condition, in Judea. He likewise says, they wash their {216} new born infants, in resemblance of the Mosaic law; as Ezek. xvi. 9. And the Spaniards say, that the priests of Mexico, were anointed from head to foot; that they constantly wore their hair, till they were superannuated; and that the husband did not lie with his wife, for two years after she was delivered. Our northern Indians imitate the first custom; though in the second, they resemble that of the heathen by polling or trimming their hair; and with regard to the third, they always sleep apart from their wives, for the greater part of a year, after delivery.[100] By the Spanish authorities, the Peruvians and Mexicans were Polygamists, but they had one principal wife to whom they were married with certain solemnities; and murder, adultery, theft, and incest, were punished with death.—But there was an exception in some places, with regard to incestuous intercourses: which is entirely consonant to the usage of the northern Indians. For as to incest, the Cheerake marry both mother and daughter, or two sisters; but they all observe the prohibited laws of consanguinity, in the strictest manner. They tell us, that when the priests offered sacrifice, they abstained from women and strong drink, and fasted several days, before any great festival; that all of them buried their dead in their houses, or in high places; that when they were forced to bury in any of the Spanish churchyards, they frequently stole the corpse, and interred it either in one of their own houses, or in the mountains; and that Juan de la Torre took five hundred thousand Pezoes out of one tomb. Here is a long train of Israelitish customs: and, if we include the whole, they exhibit a very strong analogy between all the essential traditions, rites, customs, &c. of the South and North American Indians; though the Spaniards mix an innumerable heap of absurd chimeras, and romantic dreams, with the plain material truths I have extracted.