Human SACRIFICES

Human SACRIFICES, an abominable practice, about the origin of which different opinions have been formed.—The true account seems to be that which we have given in the preceding article. When men had gone so far as to indulge the fancy of bribing their gods by sacrifice, it was natural for them to think of enhancing the value of so cheap an atonement by the cost and rarity of the offering; and, oppressed with their malady, they never rested till they had got that which they conceived to be the most precious of all, a human sacrifice. It was customary (says Sanctionathon*), in ancient times, in great and public calamities, before things became incurable, for princes and magistrates to offer up in sacrifice to the avenging demons the dearest of their offspring. Sanctionathon wrote of Phœnicia, but the practice prevailed in every nation under heaven of which we have received any ancient account. The Egyptians had it in the early part of their monarchy. The Cretans likewise had it, and retained it for a long time.—The nations of Arabia did the same. The people of Dannah, in particular, sacrificed every year a child, and buried it underneath an altar, which they made use of

instead of an idol; for they did not admit of images. Sacrifice. The Persians buried people alive. Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, entombed 12 persons quick under ground for the good of her soul. It would be endless to enumerate every city, or every province, where these dire practices obtained. The Cyprians, the Rhodians, the Phœcians, the Ionians, those of Chios, Lesbos, Tenedos, all had human sacrifices. The natives of the Tauric Chersonesus, offered up to Diana every stranger whom chance threw upon their coast. Hence arose that just expostulation in Euripides upon the inconsistency of the proceeding; wherein much good reasoning is implied. Iphigenia wonders, as the goddess delighted in the blood of men, that every villain and murderer should be privileged to escape, nay, be driven from the threshold of the temple; whereas, if an honest and virtuous man chanced to stray thither, he only was seized upon, and put to death. The Pelasgi, in a time of scarcity, vowed the tenth of all that should be born to them for a sacrifice, in order to procure plenty. Aristomenes the Messenian slew 300 noble Lacedæmonians, among whom was Theopompus the king of Sparta, at the altar of Jupiter at Ithome. Without doubt the Lacedæmonians did not fail to make ample returns; for they were a severe and revenging people, and offered the like victims to Mars. Their festival of the Diamastigosis is well known; when the Spartan boys were whipped in the fight of their parents with such severity before the altar of Diana Orthia, that they often expired under the torture. Phylarchus affirms, as he is quoted by Porphyry, that of old every Grecian state made it a rule, before they marched towards an enemy, to solicit a blessing on their undertakings by human victims.

The Romans were accustomed to the like sacrifices. They both devoted themselves to the infernal gods, and constrained others to submit to the same horrid doom. Hence we read in Titus Livius, that, in the consulate of Æmilius Paulus and Terentius Varro, two Gauls, a man and a woman, and two in like manner of Greece, were buried alive at Rome in the Ox-market, where was a place under ground walled round, to receive them; which had before been made use of for such cruel purposes. He says it was a sacrifice not properly Roman, that is, not originally of Roman institution; yet it was frequently practised there, and that too by public authority. Plutarch makes mention of a like instance a few years before, in the consulship of Flaminius and Furius. There is reason to think, that all the principal captives who graced the triumphs of the Romans, were at the close of that cruel pageantry put to death at the altar of Jupiter Capitolinus. Caius Marius offered up his own daughter for a victim to the Dii Averunci, to procure success in a battle against the Cimbri; as we are informed by Dorotheus, quoted by Clemens. It is likewise attested by Plutarch, who says that her name was Calpurnia. Marius was a man of a four and bloody disposition; and had probably heard of such sacrifices being offered in the enemy's camp, among whom they were very common, or he might have beheld them exhibited at a distance; and therefore murdered what was nearest, and should have been dearest to him, to counteract their fearful spells, and outdo them in their wicked machinery. Cicero, making mention of this custom being common in Gaul, adds,

Sacrifice. adds, that it prevailed among that people even at the time he was speaking; from whence we may be led to infer, that it was then discontinued among the Romans. And we are told by Pliny, that it had then, and not very long, been discouraged. For there was a law enacted, when Lentulus and Crassus were consuls, so late as the 657th year of Rome, that there should be no more human sacrifices: for till that time those horrid rites had been celebrated in broad day without any mask or controul; which, had we not the best evidence for the fact, would appear scarcely credible. And however they may have been discontinued for a time, we find that they were again renewed; though they became not so public, nor so general. For not very long after this, it is reported of Augustus Cæsar, when Perusia surrendered in the time of the second triumvirate, that besides multitudes executed in a military manner, he offered up, upon the 15th of March 300 chosen persons, both of the equestrian and senatorial order, at an altar dedicated to the manes of his uncle Julius. Even at Rome itself this custom was revived: and Porphyry assures us, that in his time a man was every year sacrificed at the shrine of Jupiter Latialis. Heliogabalus offered the like victims to the Syrian deity which he introduced among the Romans. The same is said of Aurelian.

The Gauls and the Germans were so devoted to this shocking custom, that no business of any moment was transacted among them without being prefaced with the blood of men. They were offered up to various gods; but particularly to Hesus, Taranis, and Thau-tates. These deities are mentioned by Lucan, where he enumerates the various nations who followed the fortunes of Cæsar.

The altars of these gods were far removed from the common resort of men; being generally situated in the depth of woods, that the gloom might add to the horror of the operation, and give a reverence to the place and proceeding. The persons devoted were led thither by the Druids, who presided at the solemnity, and performed the cruel offices of the sacrifice. Tacitus takes notice of the cruelty of the Hermunduri, in a war with the Catti, wherein they had greatly the advantage; at the close of which they made one general sacrifice of all that was taken in battle. The poor remains of the legion under Varus suffered in some degree the same fate. There were many places destined for this purpose all over Gaul and Germany; but especially in the mighty woods of Ardennes, and the great Hercynian forest; a wild that extended above 30 days journey in length. The places set apart for this solemnity were held in the utmost reverence, and only approached at particular seasons. Lucan mentions a grove of this sort near Massilia, which even the Roman soldiers were afraid to violate, though commanded by Cæsar. It was one of those set apart for the sacrifices of the country.

Claudian compliments Stilicho, that, among other advantages accruing to the Roman armies through his conduct, they could now venture into the awful forest of Hercynia, and follow the chase in those so much dreaded woods, and otherwise make use of them.

These practices prevailed among all the people of the north, of whatever denomination. The Massigetae, the Scythians, the Getes, the Sarmatians, all the various na-

tions upon the Baltic, particularly the Suevi and Scandinavians, held it as a fixed principle, that their happiness and security could not be obtained but at the expence of the lives of others. Their chief gods were Thor and Woden, whom they thought they could never sufficiently glut with blood. They had many very celebrated places of worship; especially in the island Rugen, near the mouth of the Oder; and in Zealand: some, too, very famous among the Semnones and Naharvalli. But the most reverenced of all, and the most frequented, was at Upsal; where there was every year a grand celebrity, which continued for nine days. During this term they sacrificed animals of all sorts: but the most acceptable victims, and the most numerous, were men. Of these sacrifices none were esteemed so auspicious and salutary as a sacrifice of the prince of the country. When the lot fell for the king to die, it was received with universal acclamations and every expression of joy; as it once happened in the time of a famine, when they cast lots, and it fell to King Domalder to be the people's victim: and he was accordingly put to death. Olaus Tretelger, another prince, was burnt alive to Woden. They did not spare their own children. Harald the son of Gunild, the first of that name, slew two of his children to obtain a storm of wind. "He did not let (says Verislegan) to sacrifice two of his sons unto his idols, to the end he might obtain of them such a tempest at sea, as should break and disperse the shipping of Harald king of Denmark." Saxo Grammaticus mentions a like fact. He calls the king Haquin; and speaks of the persons put to death as two very hopeful young princes. Another king slew nine sons to prolong his own life; in hopes, perhaps, that what they were abridged of would in great measure be added to himself. Such instances, however, occur not often: but the common victims were without end. Adam Bremensis, speaking of the awful grove at Upsal, where these horrid rites were celebrated, says, that there was not a single tree but what was reverenced, as if it were gifted with some portion of divinity: and all this because they were stained with gore and foul with human putrefaction. The same is observed by Scheiffer in his account of this place.

The manner in which the victims were slaughtered, was diverse in different places. Some of the Gaulish nations chined them with a stroke of an axe. The Celts placed the man who was to be offered for a sacrifice upon a block, or an altar, with his breast upwards, and with a sword struck him forcibly across the sternum; then tumbling him to the ground, from his agonies and convulsions, as well as from the effusion of blood, they formed a judgement of future events. The Cimbri ripped open the bowels; and from them they pretended to divine. In Norway they beat men's brains out with an ox-yoke. The same operation was performed in Iceland, by dashing them against an altar of stone. In many places they transfixed them with arrows. After they were dead, they suspended them upon the trees, and left them to putrefy. One of the writers above quoted mentions, that in his time 70 carcasses of this sort were found in a wood of the Suevi. Dithmar of Merseburg, an author of nearly the same age, speaks of a place called Ledur in Zealand, where there were every year 99 persons sacrificed to the god Swantowite. During these bloody festivals a general joy prevailed, and

Sacrifice. banquets were most royally served. They fed, caroused, and gave a loose to indulgence, which at other times was not permitted. They imagined that there was something mysterious in the number nine: for which reason these feasts were in some places celebrated every ninth year, in others every ninth month; and continued for nine days. When all was ended, they washed the image of the deity in a pool; and then dismissed the assembly. Their servants were numerous, who attended during the term of their feasting, and partook of the banquet. At the close of all, they were snothered in the same pool, or otherwise made away with. On which Tacitus remarks, how great an awe this circumstance must necessarily infuse into those who were not admitted to these mysteries.

These accounts are handed down from a variety of authors in different ages; many of whom were natives of the countries which they describe, and to which they seem strongly attached. They would not therefore have brought so foul an imputation on the part of the world in favour of which they were each writing, nor could there be that concurrence of testimony, were not the history in general true.

The like custom prevailed to a great degree at Mexico, and even under the mild government of the Peruvians; and in most parts of America. In Africa it is still kept up; where, in the inland parts, they sacrifice some of the captives taken in war to their fetiches, in order to secure their favour. Snelgrave was in the king of Dahome's camp, after his incursion into the countries of Ardra and Whidaw; and says, that he was a witness to the cruelty of this prince, whom he saw sacrifice multitudes to the deity of his nation.

The same abominable worship is likewise practised occasionally in the islands visited by Captain Cook, and other circumnavigators, in the South sea. It seems indeed to have prevailed in every country at one period of the progress of civilization, and undoubtedly had the origin which we have assigned to it.

The sacrifices of which we have been treating, if we except some few instances, consisted of persons doomed by the chance of war, or assigned by lot, to be offered. But among the nations of Canaan, the victims were peculiarly chosen. Their own children, and whatever was nearest and dearest to them, were deemed the most worthy offering to their god. The Carthaginians, who were a colony from Tyre, carried with them the religion of their mother country, and instituted the same worship in the parts where they settled. It consisted in the adoration of several deities, but particularly of Kronus; to whom they offered human sacrifices, and especially the blood of children. If the parents were not at hand to make an immediate offer, the magistrates did not fail to make choice of what was most fair and promising, that the god might not be defrauded of his dues. Upon a check being received in Sicily, and some other alarming circumstances happening, Hamilcar without any hesitation laid hold of a boy, and offered him on the spot to Kronus; and at the same time drowned a number of priests, to appease the deity of the sea. The Carthaginians another time, upon a great defeat of their army by Agathocles, imputed their miscarriages to the anger of this god, whose services had been neglected. Touched with this, and seeing the enemy at their gates, they seized at once 300 children of the

prince nobility, and offered them in public for a sacrifice. Three hundred more, being persons who were somehow obnoxious, yielded themselves voluntarily, and were put to death with the others. The neglect of which they accused themselves, consisted in sacrificing children purchased of parents among the poorer sort, who reared them for that purpose, and not selecting the most promising, and the most honourable, as had been the custom of old. In short, there were particular children brought up for the altar, as sheep are fattened for the slaughter; and they were bought and butchered in the same manner. But this indiscriminate way of proceeding was thought to have given offence. It is remarkable, that the Egyptians looked out for the most specious and handsome person to be sacrificed. The Albanians pitched upon the best man of the community, and made him pay for the wickedness of the rest. The Carthaginians chose what they thought the most excellent, and at the same time the most dear to them; which made the lot fall heavy upon their children. This is taken notice of Silus Italicus in his fourth book.

Kronus, to whom these sacrifices were exhibited, was an oriental deity, the god of light and fire; and therefore always worshipped with some reference to that element. See PHOENICIA.

The Greeks, we find, called the deity to whom these offerings were made Agraulos; and feigned that she was a woman, and the daughter of Ceerops. But how came Ceerops to have any connection with Cyprus? Agraulos is a corruption and transposition of the original name, which should have been rendered Uk El Aur, or Uk El Aurus; but has, like many other oriental titles and names, been strangely sophisticated, and is here changed to Agraulos. It was in reality the god of light, who was always worshipped with fire. This deity was the Moloch of the Tyrians and Canaanites, and the Melch of the east; that is, the great and principal god, the god of light, of whom fire was esteemed a symbol; and at whose shrine, instead of viler victims, they offered the blood of men.

Such was the Kronus of the Greeks, and the Moloch of the Phoenicians: and nothing can appear more shocking than the sacrifices of the Tyrians and Carthaginians, which they performed to this idol. In all emergencies of state, and times of general calamity, they devoted what was most necessary and valuable to them for an offering to the gods, and particularly to Moloch. But besides these undetermined times of bloodshed, they had particular and prescribed seasons every year, when children were chosen out of the most noble and reputable families, as before mentioned. If a person had an only child, it was the more liable to be put to death, as being esteemed more acceptable to the deity, and more efficacious for the general good. Those who were sacrificed to Kronus were thrown into the arms of a molten idol, which stood in the midst of a large fire, and was red with heat. The arms of it were stretched out, with the hands turned upwards, as it were to receive them; yet sloping downwards, so that they dropt from thence into a glowing furnace below. To other gods they were otherwise slaughtered, and, as it is implied, by the very hands of their parents. What can be more horrid to the imagination, than to suppose a father leading the dearest of all his sons to such an infernal shrine?

Sacrifice. huin? or a mother the most engaging and affectionate of her daughters, just rising to maturity, to be slaughtered at the altar of Ashtaroth or Baal? Justin describes this unnatural custom very pathetically: Quippe homines, ut victimas, immolabant; et impuberes (quae aetas hostium misericordiam provocat) aris admovebant; pacem sanguine eorum expofcentes, pro quorum vita Dii rogari maxime solent. Such was their blind zeal, that this was continually practised; and so much of natural affection still left unextinguished, as to render the scene ten times more shocking from the tenderness which they seemed to express. They embraced their children with great fondness, and encouraged them in the gentlest terms, that they might not be appalled at the sight of the hellish process; begging of them to submit with cheerfulness to this fearful operation. If there was any appearance of a tear rising, or a cry unawares escaping, the mother smothered it with her kisses, that there might not be any show of backwardness or constraint, but the whole be a free-will offering. These cruel endearments over, they stabbed them to the heart, or otherwise opened the sluices of life; and with the blood warm, as it ran, besmeared the altar and the grim visage of the idol. These were the customs which the Israelites learned of the people of Canaan, and for which they are upbraided by the Psalmist: "They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the Lord commanded them; but were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works: yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a-whoring with their own inventions."

These cruel rites, practised in so many nations, made Plutarch debate with himself, "Whether it would not have been better for the Galatæ, or for the Scythians, to have had no tradition or conception of any superior beings, than to have formed to themselves notions of gods who delighted in the blood of men; of gods, who esteemed human victims the most acceptable and perfect sacrifice? Would it not (says he) have been more eligible for the Carthaginians to have had the atheist Critias, or Diogenes, their lawgiver, at the commencement of their polity, and to have been taught, that there was neither god nor demon, than to have sacrificed, in the manner they were wont, to the god which they adored? Wherein they asked, not as the person did whom Empedocles describes in some poetry, where he exposes this unnatural custom. The fire there with many idle vows offers up unwittingly his son for a sacrifice; but the youth was so changed in feature and in figure, that his father did not know him. These people used, knowingly and wilfully, to go through this bloody work, and slaughter their own offspring. Even they who were childless would not be exempted from this cursed tribute; but purchased children, at a price, of the poorer sort, and put them to death with as little remorse as one would kill a lamb or a chicken. The mother, who sacrificed her child, stood by, without any seeming sense of what she was doing, and without uttering a groan. If a sign did by chance escape, she lost all the honour which she proposed to herself in the offering, and the child was notwithstanding slain. All the time

of this ceremony, while the children were murdering, there was a noise of clarions and tabors sounding before the idol, that the cries and shrieks of the victims might not be heard. "Tell me now (says Plutarch) if the monsters of old, the Typhons and the giants, were to expel the gods, and to rule the world in their stead; could they require a service more horrid than these infernal rites and sacrifices?"