DRESS AND ADORNMENT. 



and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an ever- 

 lasting covenant ; to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. 

 , . . This is my covenant : , . . Every male child among you shall 

 be circumcised ; . . . and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your 

 foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and 

 you. . . . And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were 

 born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every 

 male among the men of Abraham's house ; and circumcised the 

 flesh of their foreskin, in the self-same day, as God had said unto 

 him." We have no time, nor is it pertinent here, to consider all 

 that circumcision has to teach, nor to trace its wide-spread prac- 

 tice in varying forms. Enough to say that everywhere we find 

 underlying it the idea of sacrifice of one's own blood as a symbol 

 of compact with some deity, more or less clearly. The Jew and 

 the Egyptian circumcised, but many peoples do not do so. Such 

 may, however, have some other bodily mutilation; for instance, a 

 perforation as the 

 sign of a blood 

 covenant. Wher- 

 ever the part of 

 the body oper- 

 ated upon was 

 visible to every 

 passer, and the 

 operation itself 

 was a perfora- 

 tion, it might be 

 that some object 

 might be inserted 

 in the opening to 

 keep it open and 

 to render it con- 

 spicuous. In sucli 

 a way may have 

 arisen the use of 

 labrets and ear- 

 rings. These 

 plugs, at first 

 rude, may become beautiful. When tliis occurs, the original re- 

 ligious idea may be lost sight of, and tlie perforation may still be 

 made simply to admit of ornaments being worn. 



The history of the ear perforation is particularly interesting. 

 In its origin this is no doubt as truly a sign of a blood covenant 

 as is the Jewish circumcision. It seems possible that the ances- 

 tors of the Jews were in compact with a god whose sign of cove- 

 nant was ear-piercing. After this god was renounced and Jehovah 



Fig. 12.— Ceremonial Stone Adze with Carved Handle. 

 South Seas. 



