shall first be strangled, and then burnt to ashes; or such as die in any other faith that they be burnt alive. Both are immediately carried to the Ribera, the place of execution, where there are as many stakes set up as there are prisoners to be burnt, with a quantity of dry furze about them. The stakes of the professed, that is, such as persist in their heresy, are about four yards high, having a small board towards the top for the prisoner to be seated on. The negative and relapsed being first strangled and burnt, the professed mount their stakes by a ladder, and the Jesuits, after several repeated exhortations to be reconciled to the church, part with them; telling them that they leave them to the devil, who is standing at their elbow, to receive their souls, and carry them to the flames of hell. On this a great shout is raised; and the cry is "Let the dogs' beards be made !" which is done by thrusting flaming furzes fastened to long poles against their faces, till their faces are burnt to a coal, which is accompanied with the loudest acclamations of joy. At last fire is set to the furze at the botom of them, over which the professed are chained so high, that the top of the flame seldom reaches higher than the seat they sit on; so that

they rather seem roasted than burnt. There cannot be a more lamentable spectacle; the sufferers continually cry out, while they are able, Pity for the love of God!" Yet it is beheld

by all sexes and ages, with transports of joy and satisfaction."*

23.

RELIGIOUS RITES, OPINIONS, &c. OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

THE Indians of this country were generally Polytheists, or believed in a plurality of Gods. Some were considered as local deities; yet they believed that there was one Supreme God, or Great Spirit, the Creator of the rest, and of all creatures and things. Him, the natives of New-England called Kichtan They believed that good men, at death, ascended to Kichtan, above the heavens, where they enjoyed their departed friends and all good things; that bad men also went and knocked at the gate of glory, but Kichtan badethem depart, for there was no place for such, whence they wandered in rest

*Bucks Theological Dictionary.

less poverty. This Supreme Being they held to be good, and prayed to him when they desired any great favor, and paid a sort of acknowledgment to Him, for plenty, victory, &c. The manner of worship in many of the Indian tribes, was to sing and dance around a large fire.

There was another power which they called Hobbamock, in English the Devil, of whom they stood in greater awe, and worshipped him merely from a principle of fear, and it is said that they sometimes even sacrificed their own children to appease him. They prayed to him to heal their wounds and diseases. When found curable, he was supposed to be the author of their complaints; when they were mortal, they were ascribed to Kichtan, whose diseases none are able to remove; therefore, they never prayed to him in sickness. Their priests, which were call-. ed Powaws, and their chief warriors, pretended often to see Hobbamock in the shape of a man, fawn, or eagle, but generally of a snake, who gave them advice in their difficult undertakings. The duty and office of the Powaws, was to pray to Hobbamock for the removal of evils; the common people joined or said amen. In his

*Morse and Parish's Hist. of N. E.