240 



CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD CIRCUS. 



cerUtin per cent, on their capital, or the amount of 

 the bills which they keep in circulation, or the 

 amount of the dividends made on their stock, the go- 

 vernment derives a revenue from its right to regulate 

 the currency ; and yet no one, in fact, pays this 

 amount to the government as a tax, for the banks 

 which pay it receive a consideration in the privilege 

 of supplying the currency. As long as the govern- 

 ment does not bear oppressively upon this species of 

 monopoly, by attempting to levy an excessive tax 

 for the privilege, and thus discouraging it, a liberal 

 income may be derived from the substitution of pro- 

 mises on paper, instead of gold and silver, for the 

 ordinary purposes of circulation and exchange, and, 

 at the same time, such guarantees may be provided 

 as to prevent abuse and fraud nnd render this cur- 

 rency as safe as that of specie- 



CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. See Phy- 

 siology. 



CIRCUMCISION, the custom prevailing among 

 several Eastern nations of cutting off the prepuce of 

 the virile member. The most ancient nation among 

 whom this custom prevailed was the Epypt'ans ; and 

 we find it still among the aborigines of Egypt, even 

 among the Christian Copts (q. v.), and the Abyssin- 

 ians (q. v.), who profess Christianity, and other Afri- 

 can nations, who seem to have received it, like the 

 Abyssinians, from the Egyptians. The Jews perform 

 this ancient ceremony, by which the descendants of 

 A bra 1m m were to be distinguished from other nations, 

 as a rite instituted by God, on the eighth day after 

 the birth. The circumcised person is, as it were, 

 naturalized by tin's ceremony, or introduced among 

 the people of God. Moses found it among the na- 

 tion, and confirmed it. The Mohammedan circumci- 

 sion is probably an ancient Ishmaelite custom, which 

 the Ishmaelites and the Israelites received from their 

 common rather, Abraham. The Koran of Moham- 

 med did not introduce circumcision ; it was already 

 in use among his nation, and was introduced by them, 

 with Islamism, as a sacred rite, into all countries 

 where their religion was received. The original ob- 

 ject of this custom was probably the promotion of 

 cleanliness, which is doubly necessary among the in- 

 habitants of hot countries, for the prevention of many 

 diseases ; but it is a mistake to suppose that it in- 

 creases fertility. There is also a kind of circumci- 

 sion, or excision, performed on the female sex. In 

 Egypt, Mohammedan maidens are often circumcised ; 

 and the Abyssinians circumcise both sexes. The 

 word circumcised is often used in the Old Testament 

 to denote the Jews. 



Circumcision is also the name of a feast, celebrated 

 on the first of January, in commemoration of the 

 circumcision of our Saviour. The day was anciently 

 celebrated as a fast, in opposition to the customs of 

 the pagans, who feasted on it in honour of the god 

 Janus. 



CIRCUMNAVIGATORS. Magellan, a Portu- 

 guese, was the first of those intrepid men, who, fol- 

 lowing in the path of Columbus, traversed the ocean 

 from the east to the west, and, pursuing this direc- 

 tion, at last returned to their country. He circum- 

 navigated the world in 1519 21. In his passage 

 through the straits of Magellan, or round cape Horn, 

 into the southern seas, he was followed by the Span 

 iards (Fuca, Mendaina, Quires, and others down to 

 Malaspiua), by the French (Bougainville. La Pey- 

 rouse, q. v., others, down to Freycinet, q. v.), by the 

 Dutch (Baarents, Heemskerk, Hertoge, Tasman, 

 Roggewein), by Englishmen and Russians- (from 

 Deschnen" to Krusenstern, and Otto von Kotzebue, 

 q. v.), and, lastly, by North Americans. The Eng- 

 lish, as was to have been expected, have made the 

 most numerous and important voyages round the 



world. Fifty years after Cabot, Hugh Willoughby 

 (1553) reached Nova Zembla, on his northern expe- 

 dition. All attempts since made to enter the Pacific 

 by a north-eastern or north-western passage have 

 been fruitless. See Expeditions to the North Pole. 

 But the eleven voyages to the north-east and north- 

 west by Frobisher, Gilbert, Davis, Weymoulh (1591), 

 and several other navigators, were important from 

 tlie discoveries of new lands and productive fisheries, 

 to which they led. At the same time, Francis Drake 

 made a voyage round the earth. Cavendish,Chidley 

 and Hawkins followed their great predecessors to the 

 south, but less successfully. Amongst the bold na- 

 vigators who undertook great expeditions in the 

 seventeenth century, H udson, Baffin, Dampier, Hal- 

 ley and Woods Rogers, were distinguished by the, 

 importance of their discoveries. Woods Rogers pro- 

 ceeded to 62 53' S.,and the Russian captain Bel- 

 linghausen to 70 in the year 1820. (Rogers 

 brought Alexander Selkirk, the reputed Crusoe, home 

 with him.) Thirty years after Rogers, lord Anson 

 (1741 44) made a voyage round the world. With 

 him commences a great era in the discoveries in the 

 South seas, embracing the entire Polynesia. Then 

 followed the voyages of discovery by Carteret and 

 U'allis (1767). The voyages of Cook, beginning in 

 1770, made a new era in circumnavigation. At last, 

 Vancouver made geographers and navigators well 

 acquainted with the north-western coast of America. 

 See Kotzebue, Otto von ; Krusenstern, and Voyages. 

 The latest Voy. autour du Monde is that of captain 

 Duperrai, in the Coquille, made by command of 

 Louis XVIII., in 1822 25 (six vols. 4to, with an 

 atlas of 375 pages, published in numbers, Paris, 1828). 



CIRCUMVALLATION, or LINE OF CIRCUM- 

 VALLATION, in military affairs, implies a fortifica- 

 tion of earth, consisting of a parapet and trench, 

 made round the town intended to be besieged, when 

 any molestation is apprehended from parties of the 

 enemy which may march to relieve the place. 



CIRCUS, among the Romans; an oblong build- 

 ing without a roof, hi which public chariot-races and 

 exhibitions of pugilism and wrestling took place. It 

 was rectangular, except that one short side formed a 

 half circle ; the entrance was at the opposite end. 

 Within, on each side of the entrance, were six ar- 

 cades (carceres), where the chariots stood. On both 

 the sides, and on the semicircular end, were the 

 seats of the spectators, rising gradually one above 

 another, like steps, and resting on strong arches. 

 At the foot of the seats there was a broad ditch, cal- 

 led euripus, to prevent the wild beasts from leaping 

 among the spectators. Within was an open space 

 (arena), covered with sand, where the games were 

 exhibited. This space was divided lengthwise into 

 two parts by a wall (spina), twelve feet thick and 

 six high, adorned with little temples, altars, statues, 

 obelisKs, pyramids, and conical towers. Of these 

 last (metce) there were three at each end, which serv- 

 ed as goals, round which the circuits were made. By 

 the first meta, opposite the curved end of the circus, 

 there were seven other pillars, with oval balls (ova) 

 on their summits. One of these balls was taken 

 down for every circuit. On the outside, the circus 

 was surrounded with colonnades, galleries, shops, and 

 public places. The largest of these buildings in 

 Rome, the circus maximus, was situated in the 

 eleventh district of the city, which was thence some- 

 times called circits maximus, and on the spot where 

 Romulus exhibited the games at which the Sabinc 

 women were carried off. Tarquinius Priscus project- 

 ed the plan of this building, and some of the wealthy 

 senators completed it. The ludi magni were cele- 

 brated in it. Dionysius of Halicarnassas gives its 

 lenth at 9331 i feet, and the breadth at 2187 feet. 



