The _Aruspices_, were an _Order_ of _Priests_ among the antient _Romans_, who pretended to foretell Events, chiefly by inspecting the Entrails of Beasts killed in Sacrifice ... Birds, and celestial Appearances. _Cato_, who was one of the _Augurs_, conscious of their impious Politicks, used to say, _He wondered how one Priest could look at another without laughing in his Face_. These Augural Priests made a College, or Community; they bore an Augural Staff or Wand, called _Lituus_, made in form of a _Crozier_, or a Bishop’s Staff, or Shepherd’s Crook, as the Ensign of their Office and Authority—— And what is most ridiculous is, that no Affair of Moment could be resolved upon, without first consulting these holy Cheats; and their Advice, be what it would, was by a Decree of the Senate appointed to be exactly and religiously observed. _Ornithomancy_, or Divination by Birds, was, among the _Greeks_, the same with _Augury_ among the _Romans_. At _Angola_ and _Congo_ in the _East-Indies_, wooden Idols, resembling Negroes, are erected in the midst of their Towns, which they daily worship. ’Tis their Belief they are never sick, but when their Idols are angry with them; therefore to appease them, they pour at their Feet the _Wine of Palms_. They wash, paint, and new cloath their Dead, and bury with them Meat, Drink, and some of their Goods, and sprinkle the Grave with the Blood of Goats. Their Priests are in such high Esteem, that they think Plenty and Famine, Life and Death, are in their power[439]. Footnote 439: See _Purchas_. The old Inhabitants of _Virginia_ believed many Gods, but one principally, who made the rest ... and that the Woman was made before the Man, and propagated by the Help of one of the inferior Gods. The Natives are _Anthropomorphites_, giving to their Gods the Forms of Men.... When they go abroad, they carry their Gods about with them, and in Matters of Doubt ask Counsel of them. Much of their Devotion consists in howling and dancing about Fires, with Rattles in their Hands. _Quære_, Whether this Custom be not the Original of Castanets or Snappers in Dancing[440]? Footnote 440: _Hackluit in Purchas._ Another Instance of monstrous Degeneracy, we have among the _Phenicians_, who offer’d yearly Sacrifices to _Saturn_ of young _Infants_; and in the Temple of _Venus_, practised not only Whoredom, but the most unnatural Sin of Sodomy also; yea, by the Laws of their Religion, were bound to prostitute their Daughters to _Venus_, before they married them: In their Temple the Women who refused to be shaved, were obliged to yield up their Honour to Strangers for one day.