teftimonies of Spani/Jj writers. 213
they boaftingly tell us of, would have, long before they came, utterly de- popuia '! Peru and Mexico.
r ihc.il now quote a little of their lefs romantic defcription, to confirm the account I have given concerning the genuine rites, and cuftoms, of our North-American Indians.
The ornaments of the Indians of South and North America, were for merly, and ftill are alike, without the kail difference, except in value. Thofe fuperficial writers agree, that the men and women of Peru and Mexico wore golden ear-rings, and bracelets around their necks and wrifts , that the men wore rings of the fame metal in their nofe, marked their bo dies with various figures, painted their faces red, and the women their cheeks, which feems to have been a very early and general cuftom. They tell us, that the coronation of the Indian kings, and inftallment of their nobles, was folemnized with comedies, banquets, lights, &c. and that no plebeians were allowed to ferve before their kings , they muft be knights, or noblemen. All thofe founding high titles are only a con- fuied picture of the general method of the Indians in crowning their war riors, performing their war-dances, and efteeming thofe fellows as old women, who never attended the reputed holy ark with fuccefs for the beloved brethren.
Don Antonio de Ulloa informs us, that fome of the South-American natives cut the lobes of their ears, and for a confiderable time, fattened fmall weights to them, in order to lengthen them ; that others cut holes in their upper and under lips , through the cartilege of the nofe, their chins,, and jaws, and either hung or thruft through them, fuch things as they mod fancied, which alfo agrees with the ancient cuftoms of our Northern In dians.
Emanuel de Moraes and Acofta affirm, that the Brafilians marry in their own family, or tribe. And Jo. de Laet. fays, they call their uncles and aunts, " fathers and mothers," which is a cuftom of the Hebrews, and of all our North-American Indians : and he affiires us they mourn very much for their dead j and that their clothes are like thofe f the early, Jews,
Ulto*
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