American religions admitted, like many others, of Priests, oracles, temples, shrines, pilgrimages, holy places, sacrifices, expiations, confessions, offerings, hymns, veneration for animals, men and stars. Idols painted or sculptured in wood, pottery, stone, metals, &c.; bloody rites by human sacrifices, scarifications, circumscision, &c. But none of these practices were general, some were quite local and circumscribed. Thus circumscision was only used by the Mayas of Yucatan, the Calchaquis of Tucuman, &c. Traces of a triple god or Indian Trimurti have been met from Ohio to Peru; but it was no where the prevailing religion. As the same idea was found among the Celts and Polynesians, it may have come by the east rather than Polynesia in the west.
10. _Civilization and Manners._ This completes the history of all nations. When their annals are well known, it becomes a very proper appendix to them; when they are not, it is a very needful supplement to the traditions, &c. But we must not make any history consist merely in such an account, as often done by negligent writers. The manners and customs of every people, are so fluctuating, liable to be changed, or improved by civilization, imitation, arts and sciences, &c.; that they cannot afford any test of connections. They are often borrowed, from neighbors or strangers, disused after awhile by whims or wars, invented to suit the climate and productions it may afford. We have positive proofs that the Europeans have since 1492 greatly modified the customs of all the tribes they conquered or visited. This must have happened formerly also, by other visits or communications. Yet, notwithstanding the uncertainty of the origin and duration of the primitive American customs, they must be studied, as one of the sources and objects of history.
We find, in ancient America, nearly all the forms of social civilization and manners of the east. But the Nomadic life with camels, oxen and sheep, was unknown, as well as those animals. The American cattle or lamas, &c. of South America, hogs of Coriana, dogs and rabbits of Mexico, deers of Florida, buffalos of Taos, were kept by sedentary civilized tribes. The Nomadic wandering tribes of America were chiefly hunters and fishermen: scattered around the agricultural nations, spreading from Canada to Chili.