Such an object, however, is improbable for low stages of society--it
implies an extent of observation that is not to be assumed for savages;
and there is, besides, the fact that certain tribes (in Australia and
elsewhere) that practice circumcision do not connect the birth of
children with sexual intercourse. In general it is not to be supposed
that savages make well-considered physical preparation for marriage in
the interests of procreation. The choice of mates is determined by
tribal law, but in other respects the individual is generally left free
before marriage to satisfy his appetite--it is instinct that controls
the relations between the sexes.

+158+. There is no clear evidence that the origin of circumcision is to
be traced to religious conceptions. It has been held that it is
connected with the cult of the generative organs (phallic worship).[308]
It is true that a certain sacredness often attached to these organs;
this appears, for example, in the oath taken by laying the hands upon or
under the thigh, as in the story of Abraham.[309] In some parts of
Africa circumcision is directly connected or combined with the worship
of the phallus.[310] But, on the other hand, each of these customs is
found frequently without the other: in India we have phallic worship
without circumcision, in Australia circumcision without phallic worship;
and this separateness of the two may be said to be the rule. The cult of
the phallus seems not to exist among the lowest peoples.

+159+. The view that circumcision is of the nature of a sacrifice or
dedication to a deity, particularly to a deity of fertility, appears to
be derived from late usages in times when more refined ideas have been
attached to early customs. The Phrygian practice of excision was
regarded, probably, as a sacrifice. But elsewhere, in Egypt, Babylonia,
Syria, and Canaan, where the worship of gods and goddesses of fertility
was prominent, we do not find circumcision connected therewith. In the
writings of the Old Testament prophets it is treated as a symbol of
moral purification. Among the lower peoples there is no trace of the
conception of it as a sacrifice. It is not circumcision that makes the
phallus sacred--it is sacred in itself, and all procedures of savage
veneration for the prepuce assume its inherent potency.

+160+. Nor can circumcision be explained as an attenuated survival of
human sacrifice. The practice (in Peru and elsewhere) of drawing blood