, brought out a strong antagonism from those
people to his attacks, and in a volume entitled, "Letters of Certain
Jews to Monsieur Voltaire,"--being a series of criticisms on his
aspersions on the race and on the writings of the Old Testament (written
by a number of Portuguese, German, and Polish Jews then residing in
Holland[1]),--they proved conclusively that the Phoenicians had borrowed
the rite from the Israelites, as they (the Phoenicians) had practiced
the rite on the newborn, whereas, had they followed the Egyptian rite,
they would have only circumcised the child after its having passed its
thirteenth year,--these being the distinctive differences between the
Jewish and Egyptian rites.

Luckily, in the small temple of Khons, which formed an annex to the
greater temple of Maut, at Karnac, there was found a _bas-relief_,
partly perfect, which goes far toward giving light on the subject of
Egyptian circumcision. The upper part of the sculpture was so defaced
that the upper portions of four of the five figures were destroyed, but
the lower portions were so perfect in every detail as to furnish a full
history of the age of the candidates for the rite and the manner of its
performance. It is further interesting from the fact that it establishes
also the time during which the rite was so performed. M. Chabas and Dr.
Ebers argue, from the founder of the temple having been Rameses II, that
the sculpture refers to the circumcision of two of his children. The
knife appears to be a stone implement, and the operator kneels in front
of the child, who is standing, while a matron supports him in a kneeling
posture, and she holds his hands from behind him.[2] In this
_bas-relief_ we can see the great difference that existed between the
two forms of the operation, that of the Hebrews being performed, as a
rule, on the eighth day after birth, while in the _bas-relief_ they are
ten or twelve years old.

Although tradition and mythology veil past events in more or less
obscurity, they do, in regard to circumcision, furnish considerable
explanatory light on matters which would be otherwise hard to reconcile.
Circumcision has been performed by the Chippeways, on the Upper
Mississippi, and its modifications were performed among the Mexicans,
Central Americans, and some South American tribes of Indians, as well as
among many of the natives dwelling among the islands of the Pacific
Archipelago. There is a tradition, mentioned by Donnelly