t it exhibited
of castrating its infant males in removing the testicles with its teeth,
the habit being instigated by a jealousy, for fear of future competition
in the exercise of the procreative act on the part of the young males.
Another tradition attributes its origin to the castor. Bergmann here
traces out the etymological relation existing between the name of the
operation and that of the animal with that of a Greek verb that forms
the root of _castrum_, or camp; _casa_, or house; _castigare_, to
arrange; from whence also is traced _cosmos_, the world; _kastorio_, the
Greek for wishing to build, and the Latin _kasturio_ having the same
relative but a more imperative signification; _kastor_, signifying as
loving to build; _castitiator_, Latin for architect, and _casticheur_,
old French for constructor. The tale or tradition in regard to the
self-mutilation inflicted by the castor is traced to the Arabian
merchants who purchased the castoreum, which was imported from the
shores of the Persian Gulf and from India. It was called, also, by the
Arabs, _chuzyalu-l-bahhr_, or testicles from beyond the sea; or, in
French, _testicules d'outre mer_. These terms and the tradition that the
castor on being pursued, knowing the reason of the chase, was in the
habit of tearing out his testicles and throwing them at his pursuers,
were invented by these merchants to heighten the price and value of the
article intrinsically, as well as to make it more interesting by this
peculiar individuality of adventure. The Latins, believing and adopting
the tradition as a matter of fact, coined the word _castorare_, or doing
like the castor. Bergmann uses in this connection a number of terms in
French to denote different forms or degrees of this mutilation which
have no equivalents in English,--for instance, _chatrure_, as applied to
animals, making also a distinctive difference between the meaning of the
French words _castration_ and _chatrement_. Bergmann is a decided
evolutionist as regards circumcision being evolved from prior forms of
physical mutilation, as will be more fully explained in the next
chapter; the shaving of the head of a conquered people by the Hindoos,
or the shearing the royal locks of the ancient Frankish kings; the
blinding of one eye of their slaves by the old Scythians, or crippling
one foot by the division of a tendon in a captive by the Goths, he
considers as on the same line with the idea that led to castration, the
d