sily be traced to its
origin among the hills of Chaldea. The ancient traditions and
mythological relations of the Egyptians in regard to the great nation to
the West are amply verified by the deep-sea soundings of the
"Challenger," the "Dolphin," and the "Gazelle," which plainly indicate
the presence of a submarine plateau that once formed the continent of
Atlantis, whose only visible evidence above the waves of the boisterous
Atlantic is the Azores and the remains of Phoenician civilization among
the Americans.

Professor Worman, of Brooklyn, scouts the idea that circumcision was
ever connected in any way or that it originated in any of the rites
connected with phallic worship.[10] Bergmann,[11] of Strasburg,
however, not only claims circumcision to be a direct result of phallic
worship, but looks upon the rite as something that has been reached by
what may be termed a gradual evolutionary process of manners, customs,
and society, from the time of what is termed the hero-warrior period of
traditional history, when war and the clashing of shields and sword or
spear were the main delights and occupations of man. It is strange to
note what difference must have existed between these hero-warriors in
regard to their ideas of manliness; some were brutal and fiendish,
whilst others were magnanimous. McPherson, the historiographer of early
Britain, cannot help but contrast the superior manliness of the heroes
of Ossian in his graphic description of the ancient Caledonians, when
compared to the brutality of Homer's Greek heroes. The traditions upon
which Bergmann undertakes to found the origin of the rite of
circumcision are all connected with the inhuman and brutish passions
that animated our barbarous ancestry. The first incident given is the
Egyptian traditional tragedy, which was, in all probability, the initial
point of that phallic worship which, with increasing debauchery,
assisted in the final demoralization of Rome and Greece, after its
introduction into those countries.

CHAPTER II.

THEORIES AS TO THE ORIGIN OF CIRCUMCISION.

We are told that in battle man looked upon the vanquished as unfit to
bear the name of man, looking upon the weakness or want of skill which
contributed to their defeat as something effeminate. The victor then
proceeded by a very summary and effective mode, done in the most
primitive and expeditious manner, to render his victim as much like a
female as possible to all outward appear