stem pessaries; but to the
Oriental who can replace a woman at any time and who prizes the
virginity, continence, and chastity of his slaves, even if enforced,
more than their health or their lives, these are matters of secondary
importance. In the Soudan there are no divorce courts, hence the
probable necessity of the apparatus, and, as the woman is not obliged to
wear it unless she chooses to go out unattended, it can hardly be
considered as a compulsory barbarity. In the United States such a
practice might do away with considerable divorce proceedings.

Celsus gives a detailed description of the manner of infibulating as
practiced among the Romans. According to this authority, it was employed
by them on the youth attending the public schools, as well as upon the
actors, dancers, and choristers, who were sold to the directors of the
plays and spectacles. In the cabinet of the Roman College there are to
be seen two small statues representing two infibulated musicians, which
are remarkable for the excessive size of the ring and the leanness of
the persons to which they are attached. The mode of applying this ring
did not differ much from the usual method of preparing the ear for
pendants.[21]

Among the Greek monks mentioned, the infibulation serves a manifold
purpose; it not only is a sure badge of chastity, but its weight and
size is very often increased so as to render it an instrument of
penitence, and considerable rivalry exists at times in this regard.
Virey notices that the Hindoo bonze, or fakir, at times submits to
infibulation at the same time that he takes his vows of eternal
chastity. This ring is at times enormous, being sometimes six inches in
diameter; so that it is a burden. These saints are held in great esteem
and veneration.

Nelaton, in the sixth volume of his "Surgery," mentions the case of a
man who presented himself at Dupuytren's clinic with a tumefied,
thickened, and somewhat dilapidated and ulcerated prepuce; this prepuce
had worn a couple of golden padlocks for five years, a woman having thus
infibulated his organ.

In an elaborate work on the subject of circumcision,[22] de Vanier du
Havre relates, on the authority of M. Martin Flaccourt, that with the
Madecasses the children are circumcised on the eighth day after birth;
and that in some portions of the country the mother swallows the removed
portion of the prepuce, while in others the father loads the prepuce in
some form of fire-arm,