CHAP. XV. CIRCUMCISION. 317 



Circumcision was a rite practised by them from 

 the earliest times. " Its origin," says Herodotus*, 

 *' both among the Egyptians and Ethiopians!, 

 may be traced to the most remote antiquity ; but 

 I do not know which of those two people bor- 

 rowed it from the other, though several nations de- 

 rived it from Egypt during their intercourse with 

 that country. The strongest proof of this is, that 

 all the Phoenicians, who frequent Greece, have 

 lost the habit they took from Egypt of circum- 

 cising their children." The same rite is practised 

 to the present day by the Moslems of all countries, 

 and by the Christians of Abyssinia, as a salutary 

 precaution well suited to a hot climate. 



We are ignorant of the exact time or age fixed 

 for its performance by the ancient Egyptians. 

 St. Ambrose says the 14th year : but this seems 

 improbable ; and it was perhaps left to the option 

 of the individual, or of his parents, as with the 

 Moslems. Though very generally adopted, no 

 one was compelled to conform to this ordinance, 

 unless initiated into the mysteries, or belonging to 

 the priestly order ; and it is said that Pythagoras 

 submitted to it, in order to obtain the privileges it 

 conferred, by entitling him to a greater participation 

 of the mysteries he sought to study. But if the 

 law did not peremptorily require it for every in- 

 dividual, custom and pubhc opinion tended to make 

 it universal. The omission was a " reproach ; '* the 

 uncircumcised Egyptian subjected himself to one 



* Herodot. ii. 104. 37, 



-f- Vide Diodor. iii. 31., of the Troglodytae. 



