the best authority to follow, in their fentiments upon it; and that is the testimony I now follow; which is what the prophet Ezeziel declares, in mentioning the several nations who traded to Tyrus. It is he that has laid down, as I have mentioned it before, the true fituation of the defcendants of both brothers; than which nothing can be more fatisfactory, especially when connected, and viewed, with Mofes's account, in the tenth and eleventh chapters of Genefis; for, without those judgments denounced by this prophet againft Magog, and Tyrus, there could be no foundation for any account of them at all, to be continued, from the fhort mention of them made by Moses; and those curious pieces of ancient hiftory, relating to the origin of the inhabitants of all Europe, would be utterly loft; for Mofes confines himself to the line of Shem in particular, after a very short account of Japhet, touching by the way upon the defcendants of Ham, the Canaanites, whenever he had occafion to inform us of God's judgments in carrying on his divine purposes, and in bringing about the great work of our redemption. Whereas, this prophet has rescued from oblivion a fufficient notice of Japhet's iffue, that the fulfilling of Noah's prophetic bleffing, in the enlargement of his eldest fon's most numerous progeny, might never be forgotten; and alfo, that it might be another ftanding teftimony of the truth of the Mofaic hiftory.

We must remember here, what I hinted before, that our prophet has joined Meshech and Tubal, as subjects to their brother Magog; he is faid to be their chief prince, and as these three went off together, they produced a very

3

speedy

speedy as well as great increase. They may be traced by feveral ancient and fignificant monuments in their first fettlements, in the North-western parts of Afia Minor, in the neighbourhood of their brother Gomer; from whence they quickly spread through all the Scythias, Muscovy and Tartary; for they bore the name of Mogli, which was the common appellation for the Muscovites and Tartars. These fons of Mefbech and Tubal were they who traded to Tyrus in flaves, which they carried by land to Greece, the islands of Elifba, and by fea from thence to that famous city; and these are they, who, when they migrated fouthward, and made incurfions into the Gomerian nations, forcing themselves upon, and mixing with them, were called by very ancient Greek authors, with great propriety, Celto-Scythians, which name prevailed to all the inhabitants of the Northern countries afterwards for a long time. And these three brothers left many remarkable tokens of their names in feveral of those parts through which they paffed. The great Bochart is full of such traces, among which are the following: as, the Gogarenes from Magog; and the provinces of Mongog, and Congigo, and several others, with many cities and other places in Ruffia and Tartary.

BESIDES thefe ftrong connotatives of the traces of this people, if we were to examine their manners and customs, as well as the fierce and warlike difpofitions of Magog, as hinted by the prophet, furely no people upon the earth are so likely as the Scythians to answer fuch characters. And to this time, the Cofacks, Calmucks, and numberless tribes in the feveral nations of Tartary and

Ruffia,

Russia, are under the very same state, in all respects. Again, there are places which take their names from Mefbech, though he was a subject to his brother Magog : he was called Mofoch by the ancients, and gave name to a chain of mountains, called Moschici, to the northward of Armenia, for which Bochart quotes feveral ancient geographers and hiftorians.

THE geographical accounts of the feveral boundaries of Scythia varies exceffively, according to the humour and opinions of geographers; but as it is not my business to enter into such a difcuffion, I shall only in general observe, that all the Tartarys, Ruffias, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Laponia, and every other Northern territory, whether island or continent, from the most North-eastern point of land to that of the Northern and North-west, may be comprehended under the name Scythia; because from whatsoever part of these vast tracts of country the Magogians swarmed fouthward, they were all called Scythians, in early times.

SOME of them, in the course of their migrations, lived in clans, without building houses, towns or cities; removing from place to place with their families and cattle; whilft others formed themselves into kingdoms, having cities, towns, agriculture, and commerce with other nations; so that the nearer they were to those parts where commerce was first established, the more they were civilized, and approached the nearer to the civil policy of their neighbouring kingdoms; and it will appear in the sequel, that many nations of the early Scythians were become examples to other people, for the purity of their laws, philosophy,

mufic and poetry, as well as a true heroic spirit; and fo were their relations, the Gomerians, in all their governments. But when their colonies were driven into more remote parts, they forgot, in process of time, every thing that did not immediately regard their neceffities, and were therefore reduced to fuch a ftate as we fee the North Americans are now in, living in tribes, or nations, by hunting and cattle, without tillage, or any other improvement, or conftant settlement, and making incurfions upon one another like them; and this we fee is the cafe at present, even under the dominion of the Ruffians and Tartars, in the remotest parts of those empires, which are so extenfive, notwithstanding there are emperors, kings, and kans at their head in several of these countries.

THEY were, however, ingenious enough, and very induftrious; for where they were fituated near any trading places, they had commerce with their neighbours, and where they had not, in more remote parts, yet they cultivated such trades among themselves, as fufficiently furnished them with neceffaries, for convenience and war.

THEY were capable of making their carriages, or waggons, for the use of their families; they had the use of iron, in making their arrows and other neceffaries in that. metal: and they are faid to have been very expert in dreffing, not only the skins of the animals they fed upon, but alfo even those of their enemies flain in war, wherewith the victors adorned themselves and their horfes. Herodotus is very full in his accounts of the customs of some of the Scythians; he tells us, that in order to initiate their young men and women in the feats of war, they never

fuffered,

fuffered the former to be present at feafts or councils, till they had killed at least one enemy; nor the latter to marry, till they had done the fame respectively; and the custom was, to bring the heads of fuch as they flew to their chief, which, in proportion to the number, increased the honour and character of the perfon. This author goes fo far, as to tell us, that they used to drink fome of the blood of the first prisoner they fubdued; and that they often took off the fkins of the flain, and dreffed them for the purposes above-mentioned.

THIS, and several others of their customs, would almost perfuade one to believe the North Americans were a people of the Scythian race, which I cannot help just mentioning here, though a little foreign to my présent purpose; because, as war was the chief concern of these herds of Scythians, and is fo of nations of them to this day, fo it is now of the North Americans; and a conformity of manners and cuftoms in the principal objects of different nations would encourage fuch an opinion; for what is more exactly conformable to the Scythian custom of bringing the heads or skins of enemies to their chiefs, than that of the North American Indians bringing the scalps of their enemies to theirs; and pluming themfelves with the number of scalps they cut off, fometimes wearing them as ornamental trophies of honour, and fometimes hanging them up, in view, in their huts, in order to ingrofs the esteem of their brethren and neighbours. And, indeed, one might very naturally fuppofe, that the first cuftom among the Americans was to bring the heads of their enemies, as tokens of their bravery; but that when

they