Greese they do first expose their Daughters to any that will lye with them and then give them in Marriage They believe that after Death their Souls ascend unto the Stars and go down with them under the Horrison into a Paradise of Pleasure They believe also that God stuck a multitude of Arrows in the Beginning into the Ground and of these sprung up Men and Women They have divers ridiculous Opinions of God as That he once drank much Tobacco and then gave the Pipe to their Governour with a Command that he should keep it carefully and so doing he should want nothing but he lost the Pipe and so fell into Want and Misery They use to sing to the Devils Praises to dance about Fires which they make to his Honour and leap over them They bemoan the Dead a great while and bring Presents to their Graves In Florida the Chief Deities are the Sun and Moon which they honour with Dances and Songs Once a Year they offer to the Sun a Harts-hide stuffed with Herbs hanging Garlands of Fruits about his Horns so presenting this Gift toward the East they pray the Sun to make the Land produce the same Fruits again but to their Kings they use to sacrifice their first-born Males much of their Devotion like the rest of barbarous Savages consisting in singing dancing howling feasting and cutting off their own Skins Adultery in the Woman is punished with whipping In some parts of this Country the next of Kin is permitted to cut the Adulteresses Throat and the Woman to cut the Adulterers Throat In some parts also of the Country they worship the Devil who when he complains of Thirst humane Blood is shed to quench his Thirst When a King is buryed the Cup wherein he used to drink is still 〈◊〉 upon his Grave and round about the same are stuck many Arrows the People weep and fast three days together the neighbour Kings his Friends cut off half their Hair Women are hired who for six Months howl for him three times a day This honour the King and Priest have that they are buried in their Houses and burned with their Houses and Goods XII In Mexico besides their inferiour Priests they had one Chief whose Habit was a Crown of rich Feathers on his Head Pendants of Gold with green Stones at his Ears and under his Lips an azure Stone His Office was to receive the Body of the Dead King at the Temple door with a mournful Song to open the Breast of the sacrificed Man to pull out his Heart to offer it to the Sun and then to fling that to the Idol to which the man was sanctified The inferiour Priests in the interim holding the Legs Arms and Head of the sacrificed Wretch whilst his Heart was taking out They used also to flay off the Skins of men and cloath some therewith who went about dancing and forcing People to offer them Presents or else they would strike them over the face with the bloody Corner of the Skin The Priests Office also was to burn Incense before their Idols every Morning Noon-tide Evening and at Mid-night for then with Trumpets and Coronets they sounded a long time which done they burned the Incense in Censures with much Reverence and then they beat themselves and draw Blood with sharp Bodkins they preach also on some Festival days to the People The Revenues of the Priests were great the Temples in State Magnificence and Wealth exceed ours The Priests were all anointed and wear their Hair long for they never cut it They did sometimes anoint themselves with an Unguent made of venomous Beasts which made them without fear and armed them with Cruelty They painted their Skins black they washed their new born Children and let them Blood in their Ears they performed Marriages by asking the Parties mutual Consent and tying together a Corner of the Womans Vail with the Corner of the Man's Gown and so brought them to the Bridegroom's groom's House causing the Bride to go seven times about the Hearth They buried the dead either in their Gardens or on Mountains sometimes they burned the Body and if he was a great man they killed his Chaplain and his Officers to attend him burying also Wealth with him that he might not want in the other World The Priest used to attire himself in these great Funerals like a Devil with many Mouths and glass Eyes and with his Staff stirred and mingled the Ashes When the King dyed the Priests were to sing his Elogies and to sacrifice two hundred Persons to serve him Adultery was punished with Death and so was Dishonesty in their Nuns and Monks of which there were two great Cloysters at Mexico XIII The Indians of Peru believed commonly That the Souls lived after this Life and that the Good were in Glory and the Bad in Pain so as there is little difficulty to perswade them to these Articles But they are not yet come to the Knowledge of that point that the Bodies should rise with the Souls and therefore they did use a wonderful Care to preserve the Bodies which they honoured after Death To this end their Successors gave them Garments and made Sacrifices unto them especially the King 's Inguas being accompanied at their Funerals with a great number of Servants and Women for their Service in the other Life and therefore on the day of his decease they did put to death the Woman he had loved best his Servants and Officers that they might serve him in the other Life When as Guanacapa died who was Father to Ataguâ—lpa at what time the Spaniards entred Peru they put to death a thousand Persons of all Ages and Conditions for his Service to accompany him in the other Life after many Songs and Drunkenness they slew them and these that were appointed to death held themselves happy They did sacrifice many things unto them especially young Children and with the Blood they made a stroak on the dead man's Face from one Ear to the other This Superstition and Inhumanity to kill both Men and Women to accompany and serve the Dead in the other Life hath been followed by others and is at this day used amongst some other barbarous Nations And as Apollo writes it hath been in a manner general throughout all the Indies The Reverend Beda reports That before the English-men were converted to the Gospel they had the same Custom to kill men to accompany and serve the dead It is written of a Portugal who being Captive among the Barbarians had been hurt with a Dart so as he lost one Eye and as they would have sacrificed him to accompany a Noble-man that was dead he said unto them That those that were in the other Life would make small account of the dead if they gave him a blind man for a Companion and that it were better to give him an Attendant that had both his Eyes this Reason being found good by the Barbarians they let him go Besides this
Superstition of sacrificing Men to the Dead being used but to great Personages there is another far more general and common in all the Indies which is to set Meat and Drink upon the Grave of the dead imagining they did feed thereon the which hath been an Error amongst the Ancients as St. Augustine writes and therefore they gave them Meat and Drink At this day many Indian Infidels do secretly draw their dead out of the Church-yard and bury them on Hills or upon Passages of Mountains or else in their own Houses They have also used to put Gold and Silver in their Mouth Hands and Bosom and to apparel them with new Garments durable and well lined under the Herse They believe that the Souls of the dead wandred up and down and endured Cold Thirst Hunger and Travel and for this Cause they make their Anniversaries carrying them Cloaths Meat and Drink XIV The Kings Inguas of Peru caused Images to be made to their Likeness which they called Guacos or Brothers causing them for to be honoured like themselves which was in this sort They took a Captive such as they thought good and before they did sacrifice unto him their Idols they gave him the Name of the Idol to whom he should be sacrificed and appareled with the same Ornaments like their Idol saying that he did represent the same Idol and during the time that this Representation lasted which was for a Year in some Feasts in others six months and in others less they reverenced and worshipped him in the same manner as the proper Idol and in the mean time he did eat drink and was merry When he went through the Streets the People came forth to worship him and every one brought him an Alms with Children and sick Folks that he might cure them and bless them suffering him to do all things at his Pleasure only he was accompanyed with ten or twelve Men lest he should fly And he to the end he might be reverenced as he passed sometimes sounded upon a small Flute that the People might prepare to worship him The Feast being come and he grown fat they killed him opened him and eat him making a solemn Sacrifice of him XV. The chief Idol of Mexico was Vitziliputzli It was an Image of Wood like to a Mars set upon a Stool of the Colour of Azure in a Brankard or Litter at every Corner was a piece of Wood in form of a Serpents head The Stool fignified that he was set in Heaven this Idol had all the Fore-head azure and had a Band of azure under the Nose from one Ear to the other upon his Head he had a rich Plume of Feathers like to the Beak of a small Bird the which was covered on the top with Gold burnished very brown he had in his Left hand a white Target with the Figure of five Pine-apples made of white Feathers set in a Cross and from above issued forth a Crest of Gold and at his Sides he had four Darts which the Magicians say had been sent from Heaven for the doing mighty Acts and Prowesses in his Right hand he had an azured Staff cut in fashion of a waving Snake XVI The People of Peru's chief God was Wirachocha by whom they understood the Maker of all things next to him they worshipped the Sun and the Thunder after him the Images of those three they never touched with their bare hands they worshipped all the Stars Earth Sea Rain-bow Rivers Fountains and Trees They adored also wild Beasts that they might not hurt them and in sign of their Devotion when they travelled they left in the Cross-way and dangerous Places old Shoes Feathers and if they had nothing else Stones They worshipped the Sun by pulling off the Hairs from their Eye-brows When they fear they touch the Earth and look up to the Sun they worship also the dead Bodies of their Emperours and indeed every thing they either affected or feared They have some glimmering Knowledge of the beginning of the World of Noah's Flood and they believe the end of the World which they still fear when the Sun is eclipsed which they think to be the Moon 's Husband they held their Priests in such esteem that no great matter was undertaken by Prince or People without their Advice None had Access to their Idols but they and then only when they are cloathed in white and prostrate on the Ground In sacrificing they abstain from Women and some out of Zeal would put out their own Eyes They used to consult with the Devil to whom they sacrificed men and dedicated Boys in their Temples for Sodomy They had also their Temples richly adorned with Gold and Silver and their Monasteries for Priests and Sorcerers Their Nuns were so strictly kept that it was Death to be deflowred after fourteen years of age they were taken out of the Monastery either to serve their Idols and such must be Virgins still or else to serve as Wives and Concubines to the Ingua or Emperour They are very frequent and strict in their Confessions and chearfully undertake what Penance is enjoyned them but the Ingua confesseth only to the Sun After Confession they all wash in Baths leaving their Sins in the Water they used to sacrifice Vegitables Animals and Men chiefly Children for the Health or Prosperity of their Ingua and for Victory in War In some places they eat their man Sacrifices in others they only dryed and preserved them in Silver Coffins they anoint with Blood the Faces of their Idols and Doors of their Temples or rather Slaughter-houses XVII Before the English planted Christianity in Virginia the Natives worshipped the Devil and many Idols as yet they do in many places there They believe many Gods but one principally who made the rest and that all Creatures were made of Water and the Woman before the Man who by help of one of the Gods conceived and bore Children They are all Anthropomorphites giving to their Gods the form of Men whom they worship with praising singing and Offerings They hold the Souls Immortality Rewards and Punishments after this Life the one in Heaven the other in a burning Pit towards the West The Priests are distinguished from other People by Garments of Skin and their Hair cut like a Comb on their Crowns They carry their Gods about with them and ask Counsel of them Much of their Devotions consisted in howling and dancing about Fires with Rattles or Gourd or Pompian Rinds in their hands beating the ground with Stones and offering Tobacco Deers Suet and Blood on the Stone Altars They undertake no matters of Consequence without advice of their Priests the chief whereof is adorned with Feathers and Weasels Tails and his Face painted as ugly as the Devils They bury their Kings after their Bodies are burned and dryed in white Skins within Arches and Mats with their Wealth at their Feet and by the Body is placed the Devils Image the Women express their Sorrow with black
Paint and Yellings for twenty four hours None but the King and Priest may enter these Houses where the Images of Devils and their Kings are kept Instead of saying Grace at Meat they fling the first Bit into the Fire and when they will appease a Storm they cast Tobacco into the Water sometimes they sacrifice Children to the Devil XVIII In Hispaniola they worshipped the Sun and Moon which they say at first shined out of a Cave and their Tradition is That out of two Caves came Mankind the biggest men out of the greatest Cave and the least men out of the lesser Cave They worship also divers Idols with ugly Shapes by which the Devil useth to speak to them these they call Zermes to which they kept divers Festivals In these they had their publick Dances with the Musick of Shells tyed about their Arms Thighs and Legs The King fits drumming when the People present themselves having their Skins painted with divers Colours of Herbs When they sacrifice they use with a sacred Hook to thrust down their Throats to turn up their Stomachs then they sitdown in a Ring cross-legged and wry-necked about the Idol praying their Sacrifice might be accepted In some places the Women dance about their Idols and sing the Prayers of their ancient Kings then both Sexes on their Knees offer Cakes which the Priests cut and give to every one a piece this each Man keeps as a Relick against Dangers If any fall sick the Priests impute this to their neglect in the Idol's Service therefore exhort them to build a Chappel or dedicate a Grove to their God they think the Ghosts of the dead walk who assault such as are fearful and vanish from them who are not afraid XIX In Malabar they have a Pagod or Idol which they worship seated upon a brazen Throne and crowned with a rich Diadem From his Head issue out four Horns from his Mouth four Tusks his Eyes fiery like a Glow-worm his Nose flat and ugly his Visage terrible his Hands like Claws his Legs and Thighs like those of a Lion in a word we cannot paint the Devil in a more ugly Figure than they do their God Unto this Pagod or his Priest they offer the Virginity of all their Daughters the Pagod having in the place of his Privy Parts a Bodkin of Gold or Silver upon which the Bride marryed most commonly at ten or twelve years of Age is forcibly set the sharpness of it being such that it forceth out the Blood in great Abundance and if she prove with Child that Year it is said to be of his begetting and the more esteemed Others with more Humanity instead of torturing their Daughters on this wretched Idol paralel almost to the offering their Sons to Moloch amongst the Syrians present them to the Bramini or Idol-Priest to be defloured the first Night of the Wedding and without one of these two Handsels no man is suffered to enjoy the use of his Wife not their Kings themselves More priviledged yet than many VVomen neighbouring on them in that they are not compelled to burn themselves with their Husbands Bodies but may have many Husbands either successively or at once as they list themselves and if at once she sends her Children to that Husband as we know who did who she thinks to have the best right to them XX. The former Story brings to mind a Custom amongst the Scots which took beginning as the Scottish Historians affirm in the Reign of Ewen the Third who is the fifteenth King in their Catalogue after the first Fergus This Ewen being a Prince much addicted or wholly rather given over unto lasciviousness made a Law that himself and his Successors should have the Maiden-Head or first Nights Lodging with every VVoman whose Husband held Land immediately from the Crown and the Lords and Gentlemen of all those whose Husbands were their Tenants or Homagers This was it seems the Knights Service which men held their Estates by and continued till the days of Malcolm Commor who at the Request of his VVife Margaret she was the Sister of Edgar Atheling abolished this Law and ordained That the Tenants by way of Commutation should pay unto their Lords a Mark in Money which Tributes the Historians say is still in force XXI In Loango a Country under the Line they worship Idols and are circumcised Every Tradesman appeaseth his God with such things as belong to his Trade the Husband-man with Corn the VVeaver with Cloath c. At the Death of their Friends they kill Goats to the honour of their Idols and make divers Feasts in memorial of the dead They will rather dye than touch any Meat which is prohibited by their Priests At Keaga the Sea-Port of Loango there is an Idol kept by an old VVoman which is once a Year honoured with great Solemnity and feasting There is another Idol at Morumba thirty Leagues Northward where Boys are sworn to serve this God and are initiated with hard Diet ten days Silence Abstinence from certain Meats and a Cut in their Shoulder the Blood of which is sprinkled at the Idol's Feet Their Tryals of Life and Death are in the Presence of this Idol At Anzichi they are circumcised worship the Sun and Moon and each man his particular Idol In some of these neighbouring Countries the People are Man-eaters and worship the Devil to whom they offer Sacrifice which they continue from Morning till Night using charming Vociferations dancing and piping XXII Gentilism is likewise professed in Guinea for they adore strawen things instead of God of whom they speak blasphemously calling him evil black and the Author of their Miseries and that they are no ways beholding to him for what they enjoy but to their own Industry They put within their Rings Wheat Water and Oyl for their God to feed upon such Rings are worn by many as Preservatives against Danger Their Priests use to preach to them on Festival days and after Sermon to besprinkle the Infants with Water in which a Newt doth swim They consecrate to their Idol the first Bit and Draught of their Meat and Drink But I believe this black God they rail against is the Devil whom their cunning Priests represent to that ignorant People in some black and ugly Shape sometimes of a black Dog If they paint themselves with Chalk they think they do good Service to their God When he is angry with them they use to bribe the Priest with Gold so their Fishermen are use to do when they have no success at Sea the Priest with his Wives walk in Procession knocking his Breasts and clapping his Hands then hanging some Boughs from their Necks and playing on a Timbrel the Priests fling Wheat into the Sea to appease the angry God They have certain Trees in great Veneration consulting with them as with Oracles using divers foolish Ceremonies They worship a certain Bird which hath Feathers like Stars and a voice like a Bull. The Tunny is
of Steel than Gold but then they wanted a fit Head to resort unto Now serving Heraclius in the same War his Officers used them in the same ill manner Asking for Pay the Treasurer of the Army made them this answer that there was scarce money enough to pay the Roman and Grecian Souldiers and must those Dogs be so importunate for their Wages Provoked herewith and hearing of the same of Mahomet they took to him who much strengthened by them and the rest of their Countreymen soon subjected the three Arabias to him And having defeated the Emperour's Forces sent against him he added some Parts of Syria and Egypt and returning to Mecca there died Frantick in the seventieth year of his Age and twenty third of his Impostures of which he had spent thirteen at Medina and the rest at Mecca His dead Body being kept four dayes in expectation of a Resurrection which he promis'd to perform at the end of three grown full of stench and putrefaction was convey'd to Medina and there interred his Successors out of wicked Policy keeping up the reputation of that Religion after his decease which they derided in his life and called themselves Caliphs and Vicars General to him their Prophet His Corps doth not hang in the Air by force of Loadstones drawing up his Iron Coffin or Chest but lieth buried in the ground as Ludovicus Vertomannus by his own view hath observed But having given an account of this Impostor and his abominable Doctrines I will shew the Ceremonies they use in their Pilgrimages to Mecca This Journey is performed every year and it is held so necessary that he who doth not once in his Life go this Pilgrimage shall be assuredly damn'd whe reas Paradice and Remission of sin is procured to them that go it The Journey is tedious to them of Greece being six months Journey and dangerous by reason of Arabian Thieves Mountains of Sand with which divers are overwhelmed and want of Water in those Desarts Their chief care is to be reconciled to each other before they go for if they leave hot behind them all animosities their Pilgrimage will do them no good They begin their Journey from Caire about three Weeks after their Easter being guarded with 200 Spachi on Dromedaries and 200 Janizaries on Camels with 8 pieces of Ordnance and rich Vestures for the Prophet and a green Velvet covering wrought with Gold to cover his Tomb which the Bassa delivers to the Captain of the Pilgrims The Camels that carry these vestures are covered with cloth of gold and many small Bells The night before they go is kept with great feasting and triumphs No man may hinder his Wife from this Pilgrimage and every Servant is made free that goeth it The Camel that carrieth the Box with the Alcoran is covered with cloth of gold and folk the Box with silk only during the Journey but with Gold and Jewels at their entring into Mecca Musicians also and Singers encompass the Camel and much vain pomp is used They use divers washings by the way where they find water When they come to Mecca the house of Abraham which they fable was miraculously built receiveth a new covering and a new Gate the old vestment is sold to Pilgrims which hath a vertue in it to pardon sins But that you may be the better acquainted with the Mosquita and House of Abraham you are to know that in the midst of the City is the great Mosquita built they say in the time when their Prophet lived It is four square every square half a mile the whole circuit two miles in manner of a Cloyster the Galleries round about are in manner of four Streets these Streets being separated from each other with Pillars of Marble some and some of Lime and Stone In the midst of all separate from the rest is the House of Abraham This Mosquita hath 99 Gotes and five Steeples of which the Talismans call the People to their Devotion And the Pilgrims which are not provided of Tents resort hither Men and Women lying together their House of Prayer becoming a Den of Thieves Barthema saith that this Temple is round like the Colisco at Rome that at every Entrance is a descent of ten or twelve steps on both sides whereof stand Jewellers who sell Gems only within it is valuted gilded and odoriferous beyond what can be spoken for there are four or five hundred men which sell Powders to preserve dead Corpses and other sweets It seemeth that since his time the Temple and House of Abraham are altered This House is four-square made of speckled Stone twenty Paces high and forty in circuit and upon one side of this House within a Wall there is a Stone of a Span long and half a Span broad which Stone they say fell down from Heaven a voice from Heaven at the same fall being heard That wheresoever this Stone fell there should be built the House of God wherein he will hear the Prayers of Sinners Then was the Stone as white as Snow but now through the kisses of Sinners it is become so black as it is The Entrance into this House is small and high there are without this House 31 Pillars of Brass upon square Stones sustaining a thred of Copper reaching from one to another on which are fastned many burning Lamps The Founder of these was Solyman Being entred into this House through that difficult Passage there stands two Pillars of Marble at the entrance in the midst are three of Aloes Wood covered with Tyles of India of a thousand Colours which serve to underprop the Terratza or Roof It is so dark that they can hardly see within for want of Light nor is it without an evil Smell Without the Gate five Paces is the Pond Zunzun that blessed Pond which the Angel thewed to Agar for her Son Ishmath After many idle Ceremonies performed they go round about Abraham's House seven times then they wash-themselves it the Pond Zunzun of this also they drink and pray for Pardon of their Sins After five days abode at Mecca they go to the Hill of Pardons fifteen miles distant and there they leave all their Sins behind them after they have heard Sermon and prayed and offered Sacrifices Upon their Return they must not look back to the Hill lest their Sins follow them From hence they repair to Medina where Mahomet's Sepulchre is thought to be but by the way they run up a certain Hill which they call the Mount of Health they run that they may sweat out all their Sins Thence they come pure to the Seducers Tomb which notwithstanding they may not see being hanged about with a Silk Curtain which by the Eunuchs being fifty in number to attend on the Tomb and to light the Lamps is taken down when the Pilgrims Captain presenteth the new one without each man gives Handkerchiefs or such like to touch the Tomb therewith this they keep as a special Relique When they return to
leaving the Wives and the Brethren their Sisters unto their Pleasures and therefore departing out of the House when they come in and hence it is that no Man's Son inheriteth his Fathers Goods but the Sister's Son succeedeth as being most certain of the Blood So in the Kingdom of Calicat when the King marrieth a Wife one of the principal Bramanes hath the first Nights lodgings with her for which he hath assigned him by the King four hundred or five hundred Ducats The King committeth the Custody of his Wife to the Bramanes when he travelleth any whither and taketh in too honest part their dishonest Familiarity but for this cause the King's Son succeedeth not in the Crown but his Sisters Son as being certainly of his Blood These Sisters of the King choose what Gentleman they please on whom to bestow their Virginity and if they prove not in a certain time to be with Child they betake them to these Bramane Stallions the Gentlemen and Merchants have a Custom to exchange VVives in token of great Friendship Some VVomen amongst them have six or seven Husbands fathering her Children on which of them she best pleaseth The Men when they marry get others to use them if they be Virgins fifteen or twenty days before they themselves will bed them LXXIX As for the Marriages in Peru the Men had many VVives but one was principal which was wedded with Solemnity and that in this sort The Bridegroom went to the Bride's House and put O Hoya which was an open Shoe on her foot this if she were a Maid was of VVool otherwise of Reeds and this done he led her thence with him If she committed Adultery she was punished with Death VVhen the Husband died she carried a mourning VVeed of black a Year after and might not marry in that time which befell not the other VVives The Ingua or Emperour himself with his own hand gave this VVoman to his Governours and Captains and the Governours assembled all the young Men and Maids in one place of the City where they gave to every one his VVife with the aforesaid Ceremony in putting on the O Hoya the other VVives did serve and honour this None might marry with his Mother Daughter Grand Mother or Grand Child and Yupangui the Father of Guayanacapa was the first Ingua that married his Sister and confirmed his Fact by a Decree That the Ingua's might do it commanding his own Children to do it permitting the Noble-men also to marry their Sisters by the Father's side LXXX In the Canaries they used for Hospitality to let their Friends lye with their VVives and received theirs in like courtesie and therefore as in India the Sisters Son inherited Amongst the Georgians too the Husband bringing home a Guest commends him to his VVIfe and Sister with charge to yield him Content and Delight esteeming it a Credit that their VVives can please and be acceptable Their Virgins become Mothers very soon most of them at ten years old can bring witnesses in their Arms little bigger than a great Frog which yet after grow tall and square men to prove that there is never a Maid the less for them So in Chamul a Province in Tartary they not only permit but account it a great Honour to have their VVives and Sisters at the pleasure of such Strangers as they entertain themselves departing the while and suffering all things to be their Guests VVill for so are their Idols served who therefore for this Hospitality they think will prosper all that they have And when one of their Chams forbad them this beastly practise they abstained three Years but then sent a lamentable Embassage to him with request that they might continue their former Custom for since they left it they could not thrive who overcome by their fond Importunity granted their Requests which they with Joy accepted and do still observe LXXXI In Carazan another Province of Tartary they have a barbarous Custom which they used when any proper and personable Gentleman of valourous Spirit and goodly Presence lodged in any House amongst them in the Night they killed him not for the spoil but that his Soul furnished with such parts of Body and Mind might remain in that House much hope of future happiness to that House did they repose in such unhappy Attempts There too when a VVoman is delivered of a Child the Man lieth in and keepeth his Bed with Visitation of Gossips the space of forty days they worship the ancientest Person in the house ascribing to him all their good In some part of the Country Knights and Souldiers never marry but lye with such Women or Daughters as like them leaving his VVeapon mean while at the door which forbid any Man else although it be the good man himself to enter till he hath ended his Business and be gone At a place in the Kingdom of Fez there was a Temple built to which at certain times in the Year resorted Men and VVomen in the night where after Sacrifices the Candles were put out and each Man lay with the VVoman he first touched Those Women were forbidden to lye with any other for a Year after The Children begotten in this Adultery were brought up by the Priests of the Temple But having spoken of the strange Rites and Ceremonies used in Marriage by many Nations of the Universe it will not be unseasonable to give some Instances of such unnatural Wives and Husbands as we meet with recorded in History LXXXII 1. Joan Grand-child to Robert King of Naples by Charles his Son succeeded her Grand-father in the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily Anno 1343. a Woman of a beautiful Body and rare Endowments of Nature she was first marryed to her Cousin Andrew a Prince of Royal Extraction and of a sweet and loving Disposition but he being not able to satisfie her Wantonness she kept company with low Persons at last she grew weary of him complaining of his Insufficiency and caused him in the City of Arersa to be hung upon a Beam and strangled in the night time and then threw out his Corps into a Garden where it lay some days unburied It is said that this Andrew on a day coming into the Queen's Chamber and finding her twisting a thick string of Silk and Silver demanded of her for what purpose she made it she answered to hang you in which he then little believed the rather because those who intend such mischief use not to speak of it before hand but it seems she was as good as her word LXXXIII 2. Cicero put away his Wife Ferentia for divers Reasons as because she had made small account of him in the time of the Wars which were betwixt Caesar and Pompey so that when he went from Rome to Pompey she provided no fit Accommodations for his Journey and when he came back again into Italy she never shewed the least spark or sign of Love or good Will towards him for though he staid long at