a people of Siberia in Asia. They live upon the banks of the rivers Obi and Yenisey, and on those of some other rivers which fall into these.

Vol. XV. Part II.

(A) They may have as many wives as they please, and make no scruple of marrying their nearest relations. They purchase a wife of her relations for three or four rein-deer, and take as many as they please, returning them again if they do not like them, only losing what they gave for the purchase. Upon the birth of their children, some give them the name of the first creature they happen to see afterward. Thus the child has frequently the name of an animal, and you hear a man call his son perhaps Sabatski, or my little dog; others call their children according to the order of their birth, as First, Second, Third, &c. At the end of the wall supporting the gable was a kind of altar, made of timber, on which were placed two idols, representing a man and woman, dressed in all sorts of rags; and round these were other small figures, as deer, foxes, and hares, all which were roughly carved in wood, and also clothed in rags. They did not appear to have much devotion, nor any great reverence for their idols. When they offer sacrifices, they present the beast to the idol; and having bound it, an old man puts up the petitions of those who brought the offering; he then lets fly an arrow at the beast, and the people assist in killing it. It is then drawn three times round the idol; and the blood being received into a vessel, they sprinkle it on their houses; they afterwards dress the flesh and eat it, rejoicing and singing their country songs; they also besmear the idol with the blood of the sacrifice, and grease their mouths with the fat. What they cannot eat they carry home to their families, and make presents of it to their neighbours: they as often sacrifice a fish as a beast. At the conclusion of the feast they shout, to show their gratitude to the idol for his attending and accepting their devotions; for they are persuaded that the saint or hero represented by the image always attends their sacrifices, which when over he returns to his abode in the air.

There is nothing more surprising, nor, if properly improved, is there anything more instructing, than the history of superstition. It is with this view that we have given so enlarged a view of the Ostiacks, longer, some may imagine, than their importance demands. It would, however, in our opinion, be improper to let such an opportunity slip of exhibiting the extreme weakness of unassisted reason, and the consequent necessity of a divine revelation. That the religion of these ignorant and misguided Pagans is the corruption of a primitive revelation, we think at least probable; nor do we see any way of so satisfactorily accounting for the universal use of sacrifices. The Ostiacks are obliged to take an oath of fidelity to the Russian government; and on these occasions they use the following ceremony. After laying down a bear skin and an axe, and holding over it a piece of bread and a knife, they say, "In case I do not to my life's end prove true and faithful to the supreme government of the country, or if I knowingly and willingly break through my allegiance, or be wanting in the duty I owe to the said supreme government, may the bear tear me to pieces in the wood; may the bread I eat stick in my throat and choke me; may the knife stab me, and the axe cut off my head." The like ceremony is used among them in the deposition of a witness.