EVOLUTION OF CEREMONIAL GOVERNMENT. 651 



preserved as slaves, it became imperative that the taking of trophies 

 from them should neither endanger life nor be highly injurious ; and 

 that hence, instead of jaws, teeth were taken ; instead of hands, fin- 

 gers ; instead of scalps, hair. Similarly, in this case, the fatal mutila- 

 tion disappearing left only such allied mutilation as did not seriously, 

 or at all, decrease the value of the enslaved enemv. 



That castration was initiated by trophy-taking I find no direct 

 proof; but there is direct proof that prisoners have in some cases been 

 treated in the way that trophy-taking of the implied kind would en- 

 tail. Of Theobald, Marquis of Spoleto, we read in Gibbon that " his 

 captives .... were castrated without mercy ; " and, for thinking that 

 there was once an enforced sacrifice of the kind indicated made to a 

 conqueror, there is the further reason that we find a parallel sacrifice 

 made to a deity. At the annual festivals of the Phrygian goddess 

 Amma [Agdistis], " it was the custom for the young men to make 

 themselves eunuchs with a sharp shell, crying out at the same time, 

 ' Take this, Agdistis ! ' " There was a like practice among the Phoeni- 

 cians ; and Brinton names a severe self-mutilation of the ancient Mex- 

 ican priests which seems to have included this. Coming in the way 

 shown to imply subordination, this usage, like many ceremonial usages, 

 has in some cases survived where its meaning is lost. The Hottentots 

 enforce semi-castration at about eight or nine years of age ; and a 

 kindred custom exists among the Australians. 



Naturally, of this class of mutilations, the less serious is the more 

 prevalent. Circumcision occurs among unallied races in all parts of 

 the world among the Malayo-Polynesians in Tahiti, in Tonga, in 

 Madagascar ; among the Negritos of New Caledonia and Feejee ; 

 among African peoples, both of the coast and the interior, from North- 

 ern Abyssinia to Southern Caflre-land ; in America, among some 

 Mexican peoples, the Yucatanese, and the people of San Salvador ; 

 and we meet with it again in Australia. Even apart from the fact 

 that their monuments prove it to have been practised by the Egyp- 

 tians from their earliest recorded times, and even apart from the reasons 

 for believing that it prevailed among the Arabian peoples at large, 

 these proofs that circumcision is not limited to region or race suffi- 

 ciently dispose of the current theological interpretation. They suffi- 

 ciently dispose, too, of another interpretation not uncommonly given ; 

 for a general survey of the facts shows us that, while the usage does 

 not prevail among the most cleanly races in the world, it is common 

 among the most uncleanly races. Contrariwise, the facts taken in the 

 mass are congruous with the general theory thus far verified. 



It was shown that among the Abyssinians down to recent times 

 the trophy taken by circumcision from an enemy's dead body is pre- 

 sented by each warrior to his chief, and how all such trophies taken 

 after a battle are eventually presented to the king. If the vanquished 

 enemies, instead of being killed, are made slaves, and if the warriors 



