Second Voyage, excepts them from his remark that all the ancient
nations sacrificed men, saying that where-ever it is affirmed in old
writers that these people were addicted to it, we are to understand
them as alluding to the Arabian shepherds, who at one time subdued
Egypt. Such _was_ the opinion of the writer of this note, but more
attentive enquiry has induced him, in this instance, to disregard
the distinction. Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch, quoted by Dr Magee,
mention their sacrificing red-haired men at the tomb of Osiris; and
from other sources, it appears that they had a custom of sacrificing
a virgin to the river Nile, by flinging her into its stream. The
Phoenicians, Canaanites, Moabites, Ammonites, and other neighbouring
people, were in the habit of sacrificing their children to their
idols, especially Moloch, on certain, calamities, and for various
reasons. See on this head some of the commentators on Scripture, as
Ainsworth on Levit. 18th, and still more particularly, consult Selecta
Sacra Braunii, a work formerly referred to. The Ethiopians, according
to the Romance of Heliodorus, admitted to be good authority as to
manners, &c. sacrificed their children to the sun and moon. The
Scythians, as related in the curious description given of them by
Herodotus, in Melpom. 62, particularly honoured the god Mars, by
sacrificing to him every hundredth captive. This they did, he says, by
cutting their throats, &c. The same author informs us of the Persians,
that they had a custom of burying persons alive, generally young ones
it would seem, in honour of the river Strymon, considered by them as a
deity. Polym. 114. In this he is confirmed by Plutarch. Other writers,
also, charge the Persians with using human sacrifices, as is shewn by
Dr Magee. The same may be said of the Chinese and Indians, according
to works mentioned by that gentleman. The case of the latter people
has been made notorious by Dr Buchanan. With respect to the Grecian
states in general, we have the most indubitable evidence of the