only
takes place once in three or four years, and the children are from four
to eight years of age; of fifteen circumcised at the feast witnessed by
M. Delange, only two had passed their eighth year.

In a very interesting old book,[14] "The Treaties of Alberti Bobovii,"
who was attached to the court of Mohammed IV, published with annotations
by Thomas Hyde, of Oxford, in 1690, there is a description of the
Turkish performance of the rite which leads one to infer that they
circumcised the children quite young: "Et cum puer prae dolore exclamat,
imus ex duobus parentibus digitis in melle ad hoc comparato os ei
obstruit; caeteris spectatoribus acclamantibus. O Deus, O Deus, O Deus.
Interim quoque Musica perstrepit, tympana et alia crepitacula
concutiuntur, ne pueri planctus et ploratus audiatur." Bobovii says that
the age at which circumcision is performed is immaterial provided the
candidate is old enough to make a profession of faith,--which, however,
is made for him by the godfather,--in the following words: "There is no
God but God, and Mohammed is his Prophet," or, as rendered by our
author, "Non esse Deum nisi ipsum Deum, et Mohammedem esse Legatum
Dei." To which he adds that the child must not be an infant, but that he
must be at least eight years of age. Like to the Arabs, the Turks
celebrated the occasion by feasts, plays, and a general good time; the
child was kept in bed for fifteen days to allow complete cicatrization
to take place. The circumcision was performed with the boy standing.

Michel Le Feber, writing in 1681,[15] speaks of the tax levied on the
Christians by the Turks, that they, the Christians, may enjoy liberty of
conscience, and observes that, circumcision not being compulsory among
the Turks, it often led to trouble and annoyances, as many of the Turks
evaded the operation. The tax-gatherers in Turkey are very industrious,
and, as being circumcised was, as a rule, sufficient evidence of not
being a Christian, he often witnessed on the streets scenes wherein
strangers, arrested by these tax-collectors, were compelled to show
their circumcision as an indisputable sign of their exemption from the
tax. He also relates that in their zeal for converts to Mohammedanism
the Turks often resorted to presents to induce Christians to embrace
their faith. While in Aleppo, he saw a Portugese sailor, who, through
presents, had forsaken his religion, but who had repented in the most
emphatic manner when broug