ing staff. O our Father, make our hearts and our flesh like thy heart and thy flesh.-As powerful as thy heart and thy flesh.- Like thy house and thy door and thy staff, etc. O our Father, place our names beside thine - think of us, as thou thinkest of thy house, of thy door, of the earth around thy house, etc. O our Father, make our families as holy as thine, as holy as thy house," etc. They repeat this prayer to the point of satiety. There is no question of sin, nor confession, nor repentance, nor penance. In these respects they appear more densely ignorant than the rudest savages; for they, in their sacrificial offerings, recognize their transgressions against the Holy Spirit and the necessity of repentance and penitence. It is savage nature, and every departure from it can only cast them into
a deeper abyss. For in religious matters, savages, in their primitive condition, are children of nature; to abandon that state, without being under the influence of the great truths of the Christian religion, is necessarily to follow a downward path.
To be beaten with a rod is one of the articles of their moral code, and they submit thereto when they have committed some fault. But since in their prayers there is no confession of sin against God, it appears that they only submit to this suffering for the sake of the wholesome effect produced upon the present state of society among them.
The offender, who is often the only one cognizant of his crime, goes to one of the four or five persons authorized to make use of the rod, and declares himself guilty of a transgression, for which he desires to receive a certain number of blows upon his bare back. After the flagellation, which often draws blood, the penitent shakes hands with the operator and the others who are present, and thanks him for the favor he has just done him, declaring that he is relieved of a heavy burden.
Not long ago, the prophet himself had committed so notorious an offense that he could not claim exemption` from the rigorous rule of flagellation on the pretext of his