Ethnography of Micronesia. 87 



practised among the natives of Australia and the New Hebrides ; 

 while among the Malays of the Malay Peninsula, of Sarawak (Borneo) 

 and Ceylon, the penis is injured and prepared for the purpose of win- 

 ning the favour of the female, as well as for displaying courage.^ 

 These operations are performed on the penis, but the custom 

 in Ponapé is castration, as above noted. It is well-known that 

 eunuchs in China were castrated. The custom of castration also 

 prevails, according to E. Ruelle,'^ among the Mossi tribe west of 

 Dahomey in West Africa. The chieftain of the tribe performs the 

 operation of castration upon boys to make them safe guardians of 

 his harem. Maurice Delafosse says tli^t among the Galla tribe in 

 East Africa boys between ten and fifteen years of age are castrat- 

 ed. These castrated boys or eunuchs are employed in the Moham- 

 medan harems. A savage practice to remove the testicles by 

 crushing them between two flat stones is met with among the 

 Sidama tribe inhabiting the south-west of Abyssinia. Among the 

 Zindjero tribe living east of the Sidama, all males except those of 

 the chieftain's family have one of tlieir testicles removed.^ 



Avarions theories are propounded to explain circumcision, a 

 custom which has such an old history and which prevails in dif- 

 ferent parts of the world. The hygienic theory may not easily 

 be dismissed, but it is hard to explain the purpose of castration 

 practised by some particular tribes, which constitutes one of their 

 racial characteristics. It may be argued that the custom in Ponapé 

 is intended as a restraint on the increase of population, but it 

 must be remembered that the natives on the island have only 



1 "Untroddon Fields of Anthropology." By A. French Army-Surgion. Paris, 1S98, Vol. 11, 

 pp. 363, 365. 



2 E. Ruelle, " Notes anthr. ethnog. et soci. sur quelques populations noires du 2^ Territoire 

 militaire de l'Afrique occidental française," L'Anthropologie, XV, 1904, pp. 678, 679. 



3 Maurice DeLafosse, " Les Hamites de l'Afriqixe oriental. D'après les travaux lès plus 

 récents," L'Anthropologie, V, 1894, pp. 169, 170. 



