ced human sacrifices, particularly those of
infants. [Greek: Lukaon de epi ton bomon ton] [765][Greek: Lukaiou Dios
brephos enenken anthropou, kai ethuse to brephos, kai espeisen epi tou
bomou to haima.] _Lycaon was the person, who brought an infant, the
offspring of a man, to the altar of Zeus Lucaios: and he slew the infant,
and he sprinkled the altar with the blood which issued from it_. Antinous
in Homer threatens to send Irus to one Echetus, a king in Epirus, who was
the dread of that country. The same threat is uttered against [766]Ulysses,
if he should presume to bend the bow, which Penelope had laid before the
suitors. Under the character of Lycaon, Cycnus, &c. we are to understand
Lycaonian and Cycnean priests; which latter were from Canaan: and this
method of interpretation is to be observed all through these histories.
Echetus, [Greek: Echetos], was a title of Apollo, rendered more commonly
[767][Greek: Hekatos] by the Greeks, as if it came from the word [Greek:
hekas]. It was an Amonian title by which Orus, and Osiris, were called: and
this king Echetus was a priest of that family, who was named from the
Deity, whom he served. The Poet styles him [Greek: broton delemona], from
his cruelty to strangers.

[768][Greek: Pempso s' Epeironde balon en nei melainei]
[Greek: Eis Echeton basilea, broton delemona panton.]
[Greek: Hos k' apo rhina tameisi, kai ouata nelei chalkoi,]
[Greek: Medea t' exerusas doei kusin oma dasasthai.]

I'll send thee, caitiff, far beyond the seas,
To the grim tyrant Echetus, who mars
All he encounters; bane of human kind.
Thine ears he'll lop, and pare the nose away
From thy pale ghastly visage: dire to tell!
The very parts, which modesty conceals,
He'll tear relentless from the seat of life,
To feed his hungry hounds.

When the Spaniards got access to the western world, there were to be
observed many rites, and many terms, similar to those, which were so common
among the sons of Ham. Among others was this particular custom of making
the person, who was designed for a victim, engage in fight with a priest of
the temple. In this manner he was slaughtered: and this procedure was
esteemed a proper method of [769]sacrifice.

The histories of which I have been speaking were founded in truth, though
the personages are not real. Such customs did prevail in the first ages:
and in consequence of these customs we find those beggarly attributes of
wrestling and boxing