346 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



now, exploded ; and that they are fo is plain, becaufe, other- 

 wife, the nations more to the fouthward would have adopt- 

 ed it, as they have univerfally done another cuitom, which* 

 I mall prefently fpeak. of. 



Circumcision, then, having no natural caufe or ad- 

 vantage, being in itfelf repugnant to man's nature, and ex- 

 tremely painful, if not dangerous, it could never originate 

 in man's mind wantonly and out of free-will. It might 

 have done fo indeed from imitation, but with Abraham it 

 had a caufe, as God was to make his private family in a few 

 years numerous, like the fands of the fea. This mark, which 

 feparated them from all the world, was an eafy way to fhew 

 whether the promife was fulfilled or not. They were go- 

 ing to take poffemon of a land where circumcifion was not 

 known, and this mewed them their enemy diflincl from 

 their own people. And it would be the groffeft abfurdity to 

 fend Samfon to bring, as tokens of the flain, fo many fore- 

 fkins or prepuces of the Philiftines, if } as Herodotus fays, 

 the Philiitines had cut off their prepuces a thoufand years, 

 before. 



I must here take notice that this cuftora, filthy and bar- 

 barous as it is, has been adopted by the Abyffinians of Tigre, 

 who have always been circumcifed, from a knowledge that 

 the nations about them were not circumcifed at all. It is 

 true they do not content themfelves with the forefkin, and 

 I doubt very much if this was not the cafe with the Jews 

 iikewife. On the contrary, in place of the forefkin they 

 cut the whole away, fcrotum and all, and bring this to- 

 their fuperiors, as a token they have killed an enemy. 



Although 



