Page:Book of Mormon (1830, bookofmormonacco1830smit).pdf/232

because of the greatness of their number; and after they had finished burying their dead, they all returned to their lands, and to their houses, and their wives, and their children. Now many women and children had been slain with the sword, and also many of their flocks and their herds; and also many of their fields of grain were destroyed, for they were trodden down by the hosts of men. And now as many of the Lamanites and the Amlicites which had been slain upon the bank of the river Sidon, were cast into the waters of Sidon; and behold, their bones are in the depths of the sea, and they are many.—And the Amlicites were distinguished from the Nephites, for they had marked themselves with red in their foreheads, after the manner of the Lamanites; nevertheless they had not shorn their heads like unto the Lamanites. Now the heads of the Lamanites were shorn; and they were naked, save it were skin, which was girded about their loins, and also their armour, which was girded about them, and their bows, and their arrows, and their stones, and their slings, &c. And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren, which consisted of Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph, and Sam, which were just and holy men. And their brethren sought to destroy them; therefore they were cursed; and the Lord God set a mark upon them, yea, upon Laman and Lemuel, and also the sons of Ishmael, and the Ishmaelitish women: and this was done, that their seed might be distinguished from the seed of their brethren, that thereby the Lord God might preserve his people, that they might not mix and believe in incorrect traditions, which would prove their destruction.

And it came to pass that whosoever did mingle his seed with that of the Lamanites, did bring the same curse upon his seed; therefore whomsoever suffered himself to be led away by the Lamanites, were called under that head, and there was a mark set upon him. And it came to pass that whosoever would not believe in the tradition of the Lamanites, but believed those records which were brought out of the land of Jerusalem, and also in the tradition of their fathers, which were correct, which believed in the commandments of God, and kept them, were called the Nephites, or the people of Nephi, from that time forth; and it is they which have kept the records which are true of their people, and also of the people of the Lamanites. Now we will return again to the Amlicites, for they also had a