History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present Part 13

NOTES TO TEXT.

[1] "Letters of Certain Jews to Monsieur Voltaire, Containing an Apology for their own People." Pages 451-476. Translated by Dr. Lefann. Philadelphia, 1848.

[2] "Circoncision chez les Egyptiens." Brochure by F. Chabas. Paris, 1861.

[3] "Atlantis." By Ignatius Donnelly. Page 472.

[4] _Ibid._, page 115.

[5] _Ibid._, page 234.

[6] _Ibid._, page 178.

[7] "Circ.u.mcision." A. B. Arnold. _New York Med. Record_, Feb. 13, 1886.

[8] "Atlantis," page 178.

[9] This word is, in the Mandan, _Maho-peneta_; in the Welsh, _Mawr-penaethir_. "Atlantis," page 115.

[10] "Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature," vol. viii, page 58. Article, Phallus.

[11] "Origine, Signification et Histoire, de la Castration, de l'eunuchism, et la circoncision." Par. F. Bergmann. Published in the "Archivio per le Traditione Populaire," 1883.

[12] "Dictionaire des Sciences Medicales." Par une Societe de medecins et de Chirurgiens. Paris, 1826, 60-volume edition.

[13] Dr. Delange mentions a peculiar social habit or custom among a tribe of Arabians that in a sociological sense is worth mentioning. He observes that for these dances females are preferred, but owing to the peculiar habit about to be related it is impossible to have any of the village women in Algeria a.s.sist at this part of the festivities; hence the men have to do the dancing. It appears that the females of one tribe--this being the tribe of Ouleds-Nails, who live on the southern borders of Algiers--are in the habit, when young, of emigrating to the oases of the Sahara, which are occupied by the French and traveling Arabs, where they give themselves up to a life of prost.i.tution. After having exercised this life for some years they return to the tribe with a dowry in money, besides an ample supply of clothes and jewelry,--the result of their economy,--which enables them to contract favorable marriages. This practice is so common in this one particular tribe, and so much have they monopolized the profession of courtesan, that the name of the tribe of Ouleds-Nails is in Arabia synonymous with that of courtesan. These young women dance every evening in the Arab cafes, and are at times employed to do the dancing at Arab feasts. For this reason no self-respecting Arab woman ever allows herself to dance in public, or why the practice of both s.e.xes dancing together is not practiced in Algerian villages, as a man would thereby consider himself disgraced.--Dr. Delange, in _Receuil de Memoires de Medecine de Chirurgie et de Pharmacie Militaire_, No. 105, August, 1868.

[14] "Tractatus, Alberti Bobovii, Turcarum Imp. Mohammedis IV olim Interpretis primarii, De Turcarum Liturgia, peregrinatione Meccana, Circ.u.mcisione, aegrotorum Visitatione," etc. Oxonii, 1690.

[15] Michel Le Feber. "Le Theatre de la Turquie." Paris, 1681.

[16] "La Circoncision, Sa Signification Social et Religieuse." Par M. Paul Lafargue, in the _Bulletins de la Societe d'Anthropologie de Paris_. Tome x, 3d fascicule, Juin a Octobre, 1887.

[17] "Circ.u.mcision." By A. B. Arnold. _New York Med. Record_, Feb.

13, 1886.

[18] Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. ii, page 278.

[19] "Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains, ou Memoires Interessants pour servir a l'Histoire de l'Espece Humaine."

Par M. de P. Edition par Dom Pernety. Tome ii. Article, Circoncision, Berlin, 1774.

[20] "The Family, a Historical and Social Study." By Charles Franklin Thwing. Boston, 1887.

[21] The "Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains" and Virey, in the 24th volume of the "Dictionaire des Sciences Medicales," are very full on this subject, and for fuller information the reader is referred to those works.

[22] "Cause Morale de la Circoncision des Israelites, Inst.i.tution Preventive de l'Onanisme des Enfants." Par le Docteur Vanier, du Havre. Paris, 1847.

[23] "Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology." By J. W. Powell.

Washington, 1881, 1882.

[24] "Among Cannibals, or Four Years' Travels in Australia." By Carl Lumholtz. Page 46. Charles Scribner & Son, 1889.

[25] These interesting historical facts in relation to the holy prepuce were published in the _Journal l'Excommunier_ in January of 1870, when the writer was in France. They were contributed by A. S. Morin, of Miron, a learned historiographer and antiquary. Europe has not recovered from its love of the supernatural that it had so strongly in the middle ages. The blood of St. Gennaro still liquefies once a year, and many churches still claim to possess the identical winding sheet that served our Lord prior to his resurrection, as well as more than one church has the holy cloth that St.

Veronica used on the way to Calvary, which has an impression of the face of the Saviour.

[26] This church has a remarkable history connected with its foundation. The tradition relates that in the dark ages some sacrilegious soldier had robbed a church in the neighborhood of its holy vessels of gold and silver. In the vessel in the Tabernacle there happened to be a consecrated wafer. The soldier journeyed on to Turin to dispose of his plunder, when, on arriving at the spot on which the church now stands, the wafer is said to have ascended miraculously to some distance above the soldier's head, while at the same time the mule he rode, being imbued with more religious piety than his master, reverently knelt down on his front legs. The holy wafer was now encircled by a halo of shining light; this, with the kneeling donkey and the soldier raining blows on the pious animal, while he himself was unconscious of the presence of the host above him, attracted the attention of the populace, who apprehended the soldier, on whom the stolen vessels were found. The bishop in his pontificial robes, in solemn procession, received the consecrated wafer, which promptly descended into pious hands. The donkey was adopted by the bishop and the soldier was promptly hanged, in accordance with the general treatment of thieves in those days. The writer has more than once seen a flagstone inclosed within a railing that occupies the central spot of the floor or pavement of the church, it being the identical spot on which the donkey knelt.

[27] Rush's "Medical Inquiries," vol. i, page 217.

[28] Fothergill. "Gout in its Protean Aspects," page 158.

[29] "Philosophy of Magic," from the French of Eusebe Salverte, vol.

ii, page 143.

[30] "Dictionaire des Sciences Medicales." Cullerier. Article, Phimosis. Vol. xli.

[31] Bergmann has gone into this subject at length, and the writer has drawn freely from his brochure on "Castration and Eunuchism," reprinted from the "Archivio per le Traditione Populaire" of 1883.

[32] "The Hermit." By the Rev. Charles Kingsley. See Introduction.

[33] "Dictionaire des Sciences Medicales," vol. liv, page 570.

[34] _Ibid._, page 567.

[35] _Ibid._, page 570.

[36] "Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature," vol. iii, page 351.

[37] Smollett gives a good account of the Carthagena expedition in his "Roderick Random," and for a good satisfactory detail of the blundering Walcheren expedition the reader is referred to Harriet Martineau's "History of England," vol. i, pages 269, 272, 273, and 354.

[38] Schoopanism, or paederastia, is at times practiced by the Omahas, and the man or boy who suffers as the pa.s.sive agent is called _min-quga_, or hermaphrodite.--"Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology." By J. W. Powell. Washington, 1881, 1882.

[39] When the missionaries first arrived in this region they found men dressed as women and performing women's duties who were kept for unnatural purposes. From their youth up they were treated, instructed, and used as females, and were even frequently publicly married to the chiefs or great men.--Bancroft's works, vol. i, "Native Races," page 415.

[40] "Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains," tome ii.

[41] "The History of the Hebrew Commonwealth." From the German of John Jahn, D.D. Page 25. Oxford, 1840.

[42] "L'Hermaphrodite devant le Code Civil." Par le Docteur Charles Debierre. Bailliere et Fils. Paris, 1886.

[43] "Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains," tome ii, page 78.

[44] "L'Hermaphrodite devant le Code Civil." Debierre.