h. Tufts of moss are placed in
the axilla and on the pubis, to represent puberty, and among some tribes
the skin of the penis is divided to the scrotum with a stone knife,
while others content themselves with simply making a circular incision,
which removes the prepuce, after the Jewish manner, the excised portion
being placed as a ring on the median finger of the left hand. The
circumcised then takes himself to the hills or woods, and there remains
until healed, carefully guarding himself against the approach of any
female. After this the third part of the ceremonies takes place: the
godfather of the youth opens a vein in his own arm, the circumcised
youth is placed on all-fours, and an incision is made from the neck down
as far as the lumbar region, and the blood of the godfather is made to
flow and mingle with that of the godchild; this being in reality a
bloody baptism, and a near relation to the blood-compacts of the Arabs.

The Malays, as well as the men of Borneo, are circumcised. The Battos
likewise perform the rite. Among the Islanders they sometimes ligate the
prepuce so that it drops off. Among the Battos the same object is
reached by small bamboo sticks, between which the prepuce is fastened.
In New Caledonia and Tidshi the boys are circumcised in their seventh
year. The Tonga Islanders split the prepuce on the dorsum with a piece
of bamboo or of shell. In the Marquesas and Sandwich Islands the
operation is superintended by the priests.[17]

CHAPTER V.

INFIBULATION, MUZZLING, AND OTHER CURIOUS PRACTICES.

It seems a matter of controversy as to whether the Mexicans did or did
not circumcise their children. That they had a blood-covenant is
admitted by the historians, as well as the fact that this blood was
taken from the prepuce; but that the prepuce was actually removed is
something that is not agreed upon by all authorities. Las Casas and
Mendieta state that it was practiced by the Aztecs and Totonacs, while
Brasseur de Bourbourg found traces of its practice among the Mijes. Las
Casas states that on the twenty-eighth or the twenty-ninth day the child
was presented to the temple, when the high-priest and his assistants
placed it upon a stone and cut off the prepuce, the excised part being
afterward burnt in the ashes. Girls of the same age were deflowered by
the finger of the high-priest, who ordered the operation to be repeated
at the sixth year; and once a year, at the fifth month, all the chil