the answers as sponsor for the
child, and must promise that the child will be faithful to the Koran and
Mohammed, it will be seen that, however much the lower levels of
humanity may quarrel over trifles, the heads of the people easily
accommodated themselves to any existing circumstances. Friar Clemens
might as well have let such a liberal-minded monarch live, as any of the
existing churches could easily have got along with him.

On the other hand, we have the remarkable tenacity to custom and habit
in this regard, as exhibited by the Moslems, who, although having
neither ordinance nor authority for its performance, either in their
law, creed, or in any order from their prophet, still no more zealous
circumciser exists than the son of Islam, who exacts from all proselytes
the excision of the prepuce. Mohammed was circumcised in his boyhood,
and, although he did not order its performance to his followers, he did
not see fit to proscribe a custom so general to the Arabians, where the
greater development of the prepuce probably renders circumcision a
necessity. From the same reason it is easy to perceive why the rite has
found such general observance among the Africans, who are as noted for
long and leathery prepuces as for their slim shanks. One author, writing
in 1772, in a work entitled "Philosophical Researches on the Americans,"
treats the subject in a very intelligent manner. His arguments are both
ingenious and plausible. This author looks upon circumcision as of
purely climatic origin in its inceptive causes. From a careful survey of
the natural history of man in his general distribution over the globe,
he finds that circumcision may be said to be restricted to within
certain boundaries of latitude, equidistant on both sides of the line.
No circumcised people have ever inhabited northern regions, and the bulk
of the circumcised races are found within certain climates. From this
reasoning it is easy to see why the rite should lose its standing under
certain climatic conditions, unless bolstered up by some religious
significance, as it is equally easy to foresee why it should flourish
elsewhere, even without any religious backing or ordinance. It is well
known that in Ethiopia and the neighboring countries, excrescences and
elongation of either the prepuce or nymphae are as probable as the
existence of an enlarged thyroid gland or goitre among the inhabitants
of some of the valleys of Switzerland or of those of the Ty