G.M. Now you ought to tell me about their priests, their
sacrifices, their religion, and their belief.


Capt. The chief priest is Hoh, and it is the duty of all the
superior magistrates to pardon sins. Therefore the whole
State by secret confession, which we also use, tell their sins to
the magistrates, who at once purge their souls and teach those
that are inimical to the people. Then the sacred magistrates
themselves confess their own sinfulness to the three supreme
chiefs, and together they confess the faults of one another,
though no special one is named, and they confess especially the
heavier faults and those harmful to the State. At length the
triumvirs confess their sinfulness to Hoh himself, who forth-
with recognizes the kinds of sins that are harmful to the State,
and succors with timely remedies. Then he offers sacrifices
and prayers to God. And before this he confesses the sins of
the whole people, in the presence of God, and publicly in the
temple, above the altar, as often as it had been necessary that
the fault should be corrected. Nevertheless, no transgressor
is spoken of by his name. In this manner he absolves the peo-
ple by advising them that they should beware of sins of the
aforesaid kind. Afterward he offers sacrifice to God, that he
should pardon the State and absolve it of its sins, and to teach
and defend it. Once in every year the chief priests of each
separate subordinate State confess their sins in the presence
of Hoh. Thus he is not ignorant of the wrongdoings of the
provinces, and forthwith he removes them with all human and
heavenly remedies.