Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/268

a careful hand, might almost pass for that of the North American Indians. Alike they acknowledge the existence of a supreme and invisible Being, the author of all things. The sun and moon they also adore as superior beings of the creation. They both in their invocations address the four quarters of the earth. Their priests or elders administer to them charms when sick or unfortunate in hunting. They submit with apathy (or resignation) to misfortunes, and express no violent passions. Their insensibility is such, as to prevent all surprise or curiosity at the {197} sight of novelties. They fear, but do not adore bad spirits. Unacquainted with laws, and governed by customs, they acknowledge no ruler beyond the senior of the common family or tribe. To religious ceremonies they are strangers. Anticipating the contingencies of a future state of existence, they also inter with the warrior his bow and arrows. They allow polygamy, but avoid consanguinity in marriage. Their wives are purchased (to evince their esteem), and the marriage, consummated at an early age, is no longer binding than the continuance of mutual friendship and affection. Their names are taken from the animals of the forest, or the phenomena of nature. Their hair is coarse, lank, and black, and they have little or no beard, or marks of pubescence on other parts of the body, and, whenever it does appear, it is carefully eradicated. Such is the character, and such the manners of those Asiatics, inhabiting the very same parallel as that which includes the most proximate and occidental point of the North American continent, the same parallel, which in both continents afford the Ovis Ammon, or wild sheep, the reindeer, the white wolf, the chacal, the silver fox, the sable, and the ermine.