eir religious rites. They have likewise an appellative,
which with them is the mysterious, essential name of God; the
_tetragrammaton_, which they never use in common speech. They are
very particular of the time and place, when and where they mention it,
and this is always done in a very solemn manner. It is known that the
Jews had so great and sacred regard for the four lettered, divine
name, as scarcely ever to mention it, except when the High Priest went
into the sanctuary for the expiation of sins."

Mr. Adair likewise says that the American Indians, like the Hebrews,
have an ark in which are kept various holy vessels, and which is never
suffered to rest on the bare ground. "On hilly ground, where stones
are plenty, they always place it on them, but on level land it is made
to rest on short legs. They have also a faith, in the power and
holiness of their ark, as strong as the Israelites had in theirs. It
is too sacred and dangerous to be touched by any one, except the
chieftain and his waiter. The leader virtually acts the part of a
priest of war protempore, in imitation of the Israelites fighting
under the divine military banner."

Among their other religious rites the Indians, according to Adair, cut
out the sinewy part of the thigh; in commemoration, as he says, of the
Angel wrestling with Jacob.

_12th, Their abstinence from unclean things._

"Eagles of every kind are esteemed by the Indians to be unclean food;
as also ravens, crows, bats, buzzards and every species of owl. They
believe that swallowing gnats, flies and the like, always breed
sickness. To this that divine sarcasm alludes 'swallowing a camel and
straining at a gnat.'" Their purifications for their Priests, and for
having touched a dead body or other unclean thing, according to Mr.
Adair, are quite Levitical. He acknowledges however, that they have no
traces of circumcision; but he supposes that they lost this rite in
their wanderings, as it ceased among the Hebrews, during the forty
years in the wilderness.

_15th, Their cities of refuge._

"The Israelites had cities of refuge for those who killed persons
unawares. According to the same particular divine [22] law of mercy,
each of the Indian nations has a house or town of refuge, which is a
sure asylum to protect a man-slayer, or the unfortunate captive, if
they can but once enter into it. In almost every nation they have
peaceable towns, called ancient holy, or white towns. These seem to