It is placed on a throne upheld by an azure globe; and on its
head are plumes of divers colours. His face, severe and frightful, is marked with two blue lines. He has two vast wings formed like a bat, and the feet of a goat; while in his middle is drawn the head of a lion.
As a proof of the bloody nature of the religion of the Mexicans, we may mention, that on solemnizing the building of their principal temple, sixty thousand prisoners were sacrificed. Cortez found in an enormous edifice the skulls of those who had been slain, the number of which amounted to upwards of one hundred and fifty thousand.
A F R I C A.
The supreme deity of the Hottentots, is supposed by them to possess a human form, and his residence is believed to be in the moon. When he renders himself visible to mortals, he appears in the shape and form of a Hottentot, and is, according to their ideas, possessed of exquisite beauty; they never worship him, and their reason for this absence of homage is stated by them to be, that the god has uttered a curse upon those who shall attempt to serve him; one thing is certain, that this people hold sorcery in great esteem.
Ovisara is the supreme being of another part of Africa. Invisible, everywhere present, omniscient, and infinitely good, he is never invoked. "The better he is" say the Negroes, "the more useless it is to pray to him," and as a natural consequence, their minds have recourse to, and believe implicitly in demons, in shadows and in divination. A pot pierced through the bottom in three places, is the organ used by the priests to give their oracles to the people; and from the sound which issues from the vessel, is drawn the good or evil augury: this sound is explained by jugglers, who, perfect masters of their trade, never find their address at fault.