I asked him if ever he went thither to speak to him. He
said, "No; they never went that were young men; none went thither
but the old men," whom he called their Oowokakee; that is, as I
made him explain to me, their religious, or clergy; and that they
went to say O (so he called saying prayers), and then came back and
told them what Benamuckee said. By this I observed, that there is
priestcraft even among the most blinded, ignorant pagans in the
world; and the policy of making a secret of religion, in order to
preserve the veneration of the people to the clergy, not only to be
found in the Roman, but, perhaps, among all religions in the world,
even among the most brutish and barbarous savages.
I endeavoured to clear up this fraud to my man Friday; and told him
that the pretence of their old men going up to the mountains to say
O to their god Benamuckee was a cheat; and their bringing word from
thence what he said was much more so; that if they met with any
answer, or spake with any one there, it must be with an evil
spirit; and then I entered into a long discourse with him about the
devil, the origin of him, his rebellion against God, his enmity to
man, the reason of it, his setting himself up in the dark parts of
the world to be worshipped instead of God, and as God, and the many
stratagems he made use of to delude mankind to their ruin; how he
had a secret access to our passions and to our affections, and to
adapt his snares to our inclinations, so as to cause us even to be
our own tempters, and run upon our destruction by our own choice.
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