_Circumcision, male and female, in various countries and ages._
Circumcision is one of the most ancient religious rites with which we are
acquainted, and, as practised in some countries, there seems reason to
suppose that it was of a phallic character. "It can scarcely be doubted,"
says one writer, "that it was a sacrifice to the awful power upon whom the
fruit of the womb depended, and having once fixed itself in the minds of
the people, neither priest nor prophet could eradicate it. All that these
could do was to spiritualise it into a symbol of devotion to a high
religious ideal." Bonwick says: "Though associated with sun worship by
some, circumcision may be accepted as a rite of sex worship." Ptolemy's
_Tetrabiblos_, speaking of the neighbouring nations as far as India, says:
"Many of them practise divination, and devote their genitals to their
divinities."
It is not possible, perhaps, to speak with any degree of certainty about
the origin of this rite; the enquiry carries the student so far back in
history, that the mind gets lost in the mists of the past. It is regarded
by some as a custom essentially Jewish, but this is altogether wrong; it
was extensively practised in Egypt, also by the tribes inhabiting the more
southern parts of Africa; in Asia, the Afghans and the Tamils had it, and
it has been found in various parts of America, and amongst the Fijians and
Australians. It has been argued, and with considerable plausibility, that
it existed long before writing was known, and from the fact of its having
been employed by the New Hollanders, its great antiquity may be inferred
with certainty.
It has been noticed by historians that sometimes a nation will pledge
itself to a corporal offering of such a kind, that every member shall
constantly bear about its mark on himself, and so make his personal
appearance or condition a perpetual witness for the special religion whose
vows he has undertaken. Thus several Arabian tribes living not far from
the Holy Land, adopted the custom, as a sign of their special religion
(or, as Herodotus says, "after the example of their God"), of shaving the
hair of their heads in an extraordinary fashion, viz., either on the crown
of the head or towards the temples, or else of disfiguring a portion of
the beard. Others branded or tattooed the symbol of a particular god on
the skin, on the forehead, the arm, the hand. Israel, too, adopted from
early times a custom which attained the highest sanctity in its midst,
where no jest, however trifling, could be uttered on the subject, but
which was essentially of a similar nature to those we have just mentioned.
This was circumcision.[17] It was this special character which no doubt
gave rise to the idea so common amongst the uninformed that it was a
Jewish rite.
Herodotus and Philo Judaeus have related that it prevailed to a great
extent among the Egyptians and Ethiopians. The former historian says it
was so ancient among each people that there was no determining which of
them borrowed it from the other. Among the Egyptians he says it was
instituted from the beginning. Shuckford says that by this he could not
mean from the first rise or original of that nation, but that it was so
early among them that the heathen writers had no account of its origin.
When anything appeared to them to be thus ancient, they pronounced it to
be from the beginning. Herodotus clearly meant this, because we find him
questioning whether the Egyptians learnt circumcision from the Ethiopians,
or the Ethiopians from the Egyptians, and he leaves the question
undecided, merely concluding that it was a very ancient rite. If by the
expression "from the beginning," he had meant that it was originated by
the Egyptians, there would not have been this indecision: and it is known
that among heathen writers to say a thing was "from the beginning," was
equivalent to the other saying that it was very anciently practised.
Herodotus, in another place, relates that the inhabitants of Colchis also
used circumcision, and concludes therefrom that they were originally
Egyptians. He adds that the Phoenicians and Syrians, who lived in
Palestine, were likewise circumcised, but that they borrowed the practice
from the Egyptians; and further, that little before the time when he
wrote, circumcision had passed from Colchis to the people inhabiting the
countries near Termodon and Parthenius.
Diodorus Siculus thought the Colchians and the Jews to be derived from the
Egyptians, because they used circumcision. In another place, speaking of
other nations, he says that they were circumcised, after the manner of the
Egyptians. Sir J. Marsham is of opinion that the Hebrews borrowed
circumcision from the Egyptians, and that God was not the first author
thereof; citing Diodorus and Herodotus as evidences on his side.
Circumcision, though it is not so much as once mentioned in the Koran, is
yet held by the Mahomedans to be an ancient divine institution, confirmed
by the religion of Islam, and though not so absolutely necessary but that
it may be dispensed with in some cases, yet highly proper and expedient.
The Arabs used this rite for many ages before Mahomet, having probably
learned it from Ismael, though not only his descendants, but the
Hamyarites and other tribes practised the same. The Ismaelites we are
told, used to circumcise their children, not on the eighth day, according
to the custom of the Jews, but when about twelve or thirteen years old, at
which age their father underwent that operation; and the Mahomedans
imitate them so far as not to circumcise children before they are able at
least distinctly to pronounce that profession of their faith, "there is no
God, but God, Mahomet is the apostle of God;" but they fix on what age
they please for the purpose between six and sixteen. The Moslem doctors
are generally of opinion that this precept was given originally to
Abraham, yet some have said that Adam was taught it by the angel Gabriel,
to satisfy an oath he had made to cut off that flesh, which, after his
fall, had rebelled against his spirit; whence an argument has been drawn
for the universal obligation of circumcision.
The Mahomedans have a tradition that their prophet declared circumcision
to be a necessary rite for men, and for women honourable. This tradition
makes the prophet declare it to be "Sonna," which Pocock renders a
necessary rite, though Sonna, according to the explanation of Reland, does
not comprehend things absolutely necessary, but such as, though the
observance of them be meritorious, the neglect is not liable to
punishment.
In Egypt circumcision has never been peculiar to the men, but the women
also have had to undergo a practice of a similar nature. This has been
called by Bruce and Strabo "excision." All the Egyptians, the Arabians,
and natives to the south of Africa, the Abyssinians, the Gallas, the
Agoues, the Gasats, and Gonzas, made their children undergo this
operation--at no fixed time, but always before they were marriageable.
Belon says the practice prevailed among the Copts; and P. Jovius and
Munster say the same of the subjects of Prester John. Sonnini says it was
well known that the Egyptian women were accustomed to the practice, but
people were not agreed as to the motives which induced them to submit to
the operation. Most of those who have written on the subject of female
circumcision have considered it as the retrenchment of a portion of the
nymphae, which are said to grow, in the countries where the practice
obtains, to an extraordinary size. Others have imagined that it was
nothing less than the amputation of the clitoris, the elongation of which
is said to be a disgusting deformity, and to be attended with other
inconveniences which rendered the operation necessary.
Before he had an opportunity of ascertaining the nature of the
circumcision of the Egyptian women, Sonnini also supposed it consisted of
the amputation of the excrescence of the nymphae or clitoris, according to
circumstances, and according as the parts were more or less elongated. He
says it is very probable that these operations have been performed, not
only in Egypt, but in several other countries in the East, where the heat
of the climate and other causes may produce too luxuriant a growth of
those parts, and this, he adds, he had the more reason to think, since, on
consulting several Turks who had settled at Rosetta, respecting the
circumcision of their wives, he could obtain from them no other idea but
that of these painful mutilations. They likewise explained to him the
motives. Curious admirers as they were of smooth and polished surfaces,
every inequality, every protuberance, was in their eyes a disgusting
fault. They asserted too that one of these operations abated the ardour of
the constitutions of their wives, and diminished their facility of
procuring illicit enjoyments.
Niebuhr relates that Forskal and another of his fellow-travellers, having
expressed to a great man at Cairo, at whose country seat they were, the
great desire they had to examine a girl who had been circumcised, their
obliging host immediately ordered a country girl eighteen years of age to
be sent for, and allowed them to examine her at their ease. Their painter
made a drawing of the parts after the life, in presence of several Turkish
domestics; but he drew with a trembling hand, as they were apprehensive of
the consequences it might bring upon them from the Mahometans. A plate
from this drawing was given by Professor Blumenbach, in his work _De
Generis humani Varietate nativa_, from which it is evident that the
traveller saw nothing but the amputation of the nymphae and clitoris, the
enlargement of which is so much disliked by husbands in these countries.
Sonnini suspected that there must be something more in it than an excess
of these parts, an inconvenience, which, being far from general among the
women, could not have given rise to an ancient and universal practice.
Determining to remove his doubts on the subject, he took the resolution,
which every one to whom the inhabitants of Egypt are known, he says, will
deem sufficiently bold, not to procure a drawing of a circumcised female,
but to have the operation performed under his own eyes. Mr. Fornetti,
whose complaisance and intelligence were so frequently of service to him,
readily undertook to assist him in the business; and a Turk, who acted as
broker to the French merchants, brought to him at Rosetta a woman, whose
trade it was to perform the operation, with two young girls, one of whom
was going to be circumcised, the other having been operated on two years
before.
In the first place he examined the little girl that was to be circumcised.
She was about eight years old, and of the Egyptian race. He was much
surprised at observing a thick, flabby, fleshy excrescence, covered with
skin, taking its rise from the labia, and hanging down it half-an-inch.
The woman who was to perform the operation sat down on the floor, made the
little girl seat herself before her, and without any preparation, cut off
the excrescence just described with an old razor. The girl did not give
any signs of feeling much pain. A few ashes taken up between the finger
and thumb were the only topical application employed, though a
considerable quantity of blood was discharged from the wound.
The Egyptian girls are generally freed from this inconvenient superfluity
at the age of seven or eight. The women who are in the habit of performing
this operation, which is attended with little difficulty, come from Said.
They travel through the towns and villages, crying in the streets, "Who
wants a good circumciser?" A superstitious tradition has marked the
commencement of the rise of the Nile as the period at which it ought to be
performed; and accordingly, besides the other difficulties he had to
surmount, Sonnini had that of finding parents who would consent to the
circumcision of their daughter at a season so distant from that which is
considered as the most favourable, this being done in the winter; money,
however, overcame this obstacle as it did the rest.
From Dalzel's _History_ we learn that in Dahome a similar custom
prevails with regard to the women as that in Egypt. A certain
operation is performed upon the woman, which is thus described in a
foot-note:--"Prolongatio, videlicit, artificialis labiorum pudendi,
capellae mamillis simillima." The part in question, locally called "Tu,"
must, from the earliest years, be manipulated by professional old women,
as is the bosom among the embryo prostitutes of China. If this be
neglected, her lady friends will deride and denigrate the mother,
declaring that she has neglected her child's education; and the juniors
will laugh at the daughter as a coward who would not prepare herself for
marriage.[18]
"Circumcision was a federal rite, annexed by God as a seal to the covenant
which he made with Abraham and his posterity, and was accordingly renewed
and taken into the body of the Mosaical constitutions. It was not a mere
mark, only to distinguish the Hebrews as the seed of Abraham from other
nations; but by this they were made the children of the covenant, and
entitled to the blessings of it; though if there had been no more in it
than this, that they who were of the same faith should have a certain
character whereby they should be known, it would have been a wise
appointment. The mark seems to be fitly chosen for the purpose; because it
was a sign that no man would have made upon himself and upon his children,
unless it were for the sake of faith and religion. It was not a brand upon
the arm, or an incision in the thigh, but a difficult operation in a most
tender part, peculiarly called flesh in many places of scripture. That
member which is the instrument of generation was made choice of, that they
might be an holy seed, consecrated unto God from the beginning; and
circumcision was properly a token of the divine covenant made with Abraham
and his posterity that God would multiply their seed, and make them as the
stars of heaven."[19]
Ludolf, in his History of Ethiopa, after comparing the circumcision of the
Jews with that of the Abyssinians, says: "This puts us in mind of the
circumcision of females, of which Gregory was somewhat ashamed to
discourse, and we should have more willingly omitted it had not
Tzagazabus, in his rude Confession of Faith, spoken of it as a most
remarkable custom introduced by the command of Queen Magneda; or had not
Paulus Jovius himself, Bishop of Como, insisted in the same manner upon
this unseemly custom. This same ceremony was not only used by the
Habisenes, but was also familiar among other people of Africa, the
Egyptians, and the Arabians themselves. For they cut away from the female
infants something which they think to be an indecency and superfluity of
nature. Jovius calls it Carunniculam, or a little piece of flesh; Golius,
an oblong excrescence. The Arabians, by a particular word, called it
Bedhron, or Bedhara, besides which they have many other words to the same
purpose. Among their women it is as great a piece of reproach to revile a
woman by saying to her, O Bandaron: that is, O Uncircumcised, as to call a
man Arel, or Uncircumcised, among the Jews. The Jewish women in Germany,
being acquainted by their reading with this custom, laugh at it, as
admiring what it should be that should require such an amputation."