ominate swine flesh, they do not
eat fish without scales, the eel, the turtle or sea-cow: and they deem
many animals and birds to be impure. These facts are noticed by all
writers, and particularly by Edwards in his History of the West-Indies.
The latter able historian, in noticing the close analogy between the
religious rites of the Jews and Indians, says, "that the striking
conformity of the prejudices and customs of the Caribbee Indians, to the
practices of the Jews, has not escaped the notice of such historians as
Gamella, Da Tertre, and others;" and Edwards also states, that the
Indians on the Oroonoke, punished their women caught in adultery, by
stoning them to death before the assembly of the people.

Among the Mosaical laws is the obligation of one brother to marry his
brother's widow, if he die without issue. Major Long says, "if the
deceased has left a brother, he takes the widow to his lodge after a
proper interval and considers her as his wife."

This is also confirmed by Charliveux.

It would occupy a greater space of time than I can afford, to trace a
similitude between all the Indian rites and religious ceremonies, and
those of the Jewish nation. In their births, in their separation after
the births of their children, in their daily prayers and sacrifices, in
their festivals, in their burials, in the employment of mourners, and in
their general belief, I see a close analogy and intimate connection,
with all the ceremonies and laws which are observed by the Jewish
people; making a due allowance for what has been lost, and
misunderstood, in the course of upwards of 2,000 years.

A general belief exists among most travellers, that the Indians are the
descendants of the missing tribes.

Menassah Ten Israel wrote his celebrated treatise to prove this fact, on
the discovery of America.

William Penn, who always acted righteously to wards the Indians, and had
never suspected that they had descended from the missing tribes, says,
in a letter to his friends in England, "I found them with like
countenances to the Hebrew race. I consider these people under a dark
night, yet they believe in God and immortality, without the aid of
metaphysics. They reckon by moons, they offer their first ripe fruits,
they have a kind of feast of tabernacles, they are said to lay their
altars with twelve stones, they mourn a year, and observe the Mosaic law
with regard to separation."

Emanuel de Moraez, in his history of