stroyed a greater number of human beings in battle-fields,
but few have had so many of their fellow-creatures and brethren
sacrificed to their manes.
The Mexican nations believed in the immortality of the
soul and in the metempsychosis, and connected with this almost
universal persuasion of the human race many mythological
stories. The souls of men who died in battle, and those of
women who died in labour, went, according to them, to a
place of delight in the temple of the sun. There they spent
their time in-festive rejoicings with music and dancing, and
attended the sun in his path to the meridian. After four years
they went to animate clouds and birds of beautiful feather
and sweet song, which descend occasionally on earth to suck
the flowers. According to the Tlascalans, the souls of brave
and great men passed from human shapes to inhabit the
bodies of beautiful birds and noble quadrupeds, while' inferior
persons became weasels, beetles, and meaner animals. The
souls of children, and of those who died by accidents or
disease, went to a different place called Tlalocan, the c©el
and delightful residence of the god of water. Those who
suffered any other kind of death went to Meitlan, or hell,
supposed to be inf the centre of the earth, where they dwelt
in utter darkness.* It does not appear clear that this last was
a place of punishment for guilt, or that the idea, qf moral
retribution was clearly conceived by the devotees of this horrible
superstition.
Glavigero. M. Ternaux-Compans,. loc. eit.
CHAPTER III.
OF THE ESQUIMAUX.
Section I.-t- General Survey.
The Esquimaux are well-known to, race people who
inhabit the>-sea-coast of tlie <extre^ue: north", of .Amprica. They
live chiefly pn fish, seals, and other products-of the sea; and
though, they hunt during their short^summ^-,* are;,,seldom
found further thaofU hundred miles from the coast* Their
"country is a narrow belt along the aea--sliore, reaehing,. as it
would, appear, across the whole breadth of the American
continent. Traced from the Rocky* Mountain chain, the
northern extremity of which has been discovered to form a
great boundary between the eastern and western tribes this
race, they extend on one side-intpAsia^and on the other
as, far as Greenland. The western tribes differ considerably
from the eastern, in language, and until a recent period they
wete cut off from all communication with each other, and in
their first intercourse they understood each other with difficulty.
The people of each division are, moreover, subdivided
into separate hordes having peculiar dialects..
The name hy which this, race of people are designated by
Europeans is said hy Gharlfevcax to-be derived from the language
of the Abenaqui, a tribe of Algonquins in Canada,
whQ border upon them and: eafl them ^B^mmantsic,,y which
means “ Eaters of raw fish.” The Esquimaux of Labrador,
according to the Moravian missionaries, call themselves
“ Karalit f hut whether , this, is: a national appellative of
the whole race,, or belongs to a particular tribe, we are not
informed.